Deathly Hallows Revisited
by Cat97Hermione
Summary: When Ginny overhears an unusual conversation in the kitchen at the Burrow, it sets a whole series into motion that will change the outcome of the war. Ginny takes Ron's place in the horcrux hunt and the wizarding world in changed. Watch out, Voldemort!
1. The Betrayal

_**Chapter One; **__**Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Amended**_

Harry shifted slightly, feeling slightly uncomfortable sitting on the cold ground. He lifted his face slightly to stare at the woman in front of him.

"Harry," said Hermione nervously, "I don't know how to say this, but-" Harry suddenly knew what she was going to say, and cut her off.

"But you don't think that Ron is the best person to bring with us on the Horcrux mission." Hermione bit her lip nervously, before nodding.

_She's cute when she's all nervous like that,_ thought Harry, _wait- when did I begin to think of Hermione as cute?!_ Harry shook the thoughts away, and sighed softly.

"Had you said that a few days ago, I would have leapt to his defence immediately, but now…" he trailed off for a moment, to really think about his answer… "I agree. He can't keep secrets and he doesn't stick with us. As soon as something doesn't go his way, he runs off and blabs. I'd spend the whole time too worried about him to think things through properly," he sighed, "but what can we do about it?" Hermione looked nervous all over again.

"We're going to have to… Obliviate him," she said in a pained voice. Harry stared at her, subconsciously shifting around on the grey tiles. His eyes blazed for a second, before subsiding into a more resigned look.

"I know," he admitted, "we will." Hermione nodded decisively, like a soldier preparing for his next battle.

"I also think we should take someone else as well… another person to help out. There should always be three." Harry began to protest, before his mind sent him a message- _don't argue with Hermione, the sexy witch is always right!_ Harry blinked.

"Okay," he said, and Hermione stared at him in shock.

"What, no protests? Nothing? What happened to 'I must do everything alone and woe betides me if someone else actually helps me for once!'?"

"It left me with my belief in Ron!" said Harry, looking slightly embarrassed, "did you have anyone in mind?"

"Yes," said Hermione, not elaborating any further.

"And?" Harry prompted.

"Me," said a voice from the shadows, and a tall, thin figure stepped out.

"Ginny?" asked Harry incredulously, "no…" His brain protested at once, his mind disagreed. _Yeah! Save the world with the two sexiest women on the planet! …wait… WHERE ARE ALL OF THESE THOUGHTS COMING FROM?!_

"Harry, are you alright?" asked Hermione, spotting the blank look on Harry's face.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," he said vaguely, "Where were we?" Hermione and Ginny rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"We were discussing my inclusion in your Horcrux mission," said Ginny flippantly. She then spotted the shocked look on Harry's face, and said "Oh, Hermione told me about it last night after I gave her some other information."

"What… other… information is this?" asked Harry curiously, "if Hermione thinks that you are capable of coming with us, then I think we would love to have you. Hermione and I can teach you the sixth year material… oh, wait… the Trace! What are we going to do about that?" Both girls stared at him.

"Okay, one; who are you, and what have you done with Harry Potter? Letting Ginny come with no protests? Thinking about education? And two… the Black family has some interesting information in the Library, and Sirius mentioned using magic over the holidays."

"Oh, um…" said Ginny, "all Pureblood families are taught the spell to remove the Trace, and they perform it on their children when they believe them to be mature enough to handle their magic." Harry just stared at her for a second.

"Okay…" he said, "you will explain that later. Now… about me caring about education…" he had paled slightly when they pointed his slip-up… "You see… I'm… argh… how do I say this… please don't be mad at me; please, Hermione I beg of you, but… I kinda… might've… I… Isuppressedmyloveoflearninga ndreadingsothatididn'tmakeyouandronjealous."

"What?" asked Hermione in a deadly calm voice.

"I…I suppressed… my love of… l-learning… and… r-r-reading so… so that I… didn't make… you and… R-Ron…jealous," he said sheepishly, flaming cheeks facing the ground, eyes pointing towards his toes.

"I see," said Hermione slowly but furiously, "and you will never do that again, will you?" Harry shook his head vigorously.

"Just as a matter of interest, why would I be jealous of you?"

"I…err… my IQ was tested at over 200."Hermione gaped at him.

"Only a handful of people have ever been able to say that!" she stared at him in awe, before pulling herself together, "for an intelligent person, you sure haven't been acting like one!" Harry blushed.

"Yeah, well, that test isn't a very accurate way of measuring a person's intelligence, if you think about it." Hermione looked thoughtful, Ginny just looked at them both blankly.

"Am I missing something here?" she asked them after about 5 minutes, leaving Harry to laugh as Hermione leapt into a detailed explanation of the IQ test. Suddenly, Hermione broke off and narrowed her eyes at Harry.

"You should be better at magic," she said, "I know you have the power… you fought off over 100 Dementors when you were thirteen! Most fully grown adults can't manage to fight off even one, and your magical core keeps growing until you reach magical maturity."

"What's magical maturity?" asked both Harry and Ginny at once. Hermione smiled.

"That's when your magical core gets its final boost before stabilising and not growing any more. Most people get quite a large boost of power, it's estimated to be around 20% of the power you already have. A few people have been recorded to have gained extra powers during Magical Maturity, but most just get raw power. It happens between 15 and 17. That's why the Wizarding coming-of-age is at 17 years old, everyone has gone through Magical Maturity by then. Harry nodded, but it a rare scene of irony, he suddenly collapsed to the ground, glowing.

"Magical Maturity," said Hermione, suppressing a laugh, "at least we have an hour or so to talk!"

"So… what's happening to him?" asked Ginny, slightly nervously.

"He's in his mind, assimilating information and learning about his new power and possibly new abilities. If he's smart, he'll build some shields while he has time to get used to his new powers in his mind." Ginny nodded, before- in another burst of irony- collapsing to the ground, glowing.

Hermione sighed, and went back to the room she was sharing with Ginny, muttering under her breath about 'Harry' and 'bad timing' and 'Ginny.'

Harry remembered listening to Hermione and Ginny talk about Magical Maturity, before he felt light headed and collapsed to the ground. Groaning, he sat up… and blinked. He was in a foreign landscape, of rolling hills and mountains, a bright blue sky with only a few wispy clouds to add to the landscape. Information was flowing freely around him, confusing him. Memories flashed before him. It was… chaos.

'Where am I?' he thought wildly, wondering if it was a trick from Voldemort. Then his high intelligence kicked in. He was in his mind. He shrugged- well, the physical representation of him shrugged. Harry was suddenly puzzled. How do you shrug- or do anything, really, in your own mind? How do physical representations work in your own mind, exactly? And what were the mechanics behind it? Even magic had mechanics and driving forces- otherwise, people would do anything. That was a scary thought. Harry's representation sighed, before setting to work. If he was in his own mind, he might as well take advantage of it… and he set to organising it. Harry worked his way through all of the thoughts, emotions and memories, organising them into files and filing cabinets which he placed in a neat hole he had dug in the side of one of the hills. Harry couldn't believe how impetuous he had become after entering the magical world, but soon found the answer. Outside influence, in the forms of spells and potions. He had a sneaking suspicion that Ginny knew why they were there, and resolved to ask her when he was finished organising his mind. The discovery of the outside influences had led him to the discovery of his link with Voldemort- and its subsequent destruction. Voldemort had been stealing information and power from him for years.

Once he had organised everything, Harry filled in the entrance, sealing it with magic so that only he could enter. Apparently, you didn't need to know the spell in your own mind- you just did it. He supposed that most witches and wizards hadn't worked that out- then again; they never had been very creative people as opposed to muggles. If they were creative, they probably hadn't heard of Occlumency and Legilimency- or decided that it had no effect on them. Harry had no such qualms, and began to protect his mind with the most outrageously creative means he could come up with. Who knew that purple flobberworms were so dangerous? Or that grass was capable of strangling people? It was insane, but that was his advantage. Most people wouldn't expect a Golden Snidget to dive-bomb them before attacking with venomous fangs. It just wasn't done.

Once Harry felt that his mind was sufficiently protected, Harry began to search through it, memorising the layout of his own mind. That bothered him for a while, but he soon shrugged it off. It was magic- what wasn't weird, even after almost seven years?

Finally, he discovered what he had been sent in here to find all along- the information on his powers. Had he been in the Physical Realm, Harry would have fainted. As it was, he felt rather light-headed, which was quite an achievement for a mere physical representation of himself. He was… powerful. More than powerful… he was… well… extra-powerful. Harry wasn't really sure of any words he could accurately use to describe his power. It wasn't all-powerful, but he was sure that only a few people would match him in power- Voldemort included, most likely. He would have to keep his…new… powers as secret as possible. And learn how to use them.

With that in… mind? Harry set to work, getting used to the greater amount of power that now flowed through his veins, and learning about his new power… well, not really new; he just hadn't known about it before- he was a Metamorphmagus, and an Elemental.

Ginny was not having such a good time. Her Magical Maturity much resembled Hermione's- she had less power than she had expected; though Ginny, unlike Hermione, was still above average power, unlike Hermione who was just below. Both of their skills relied more on thinking, planning and understanding rather than the sheer power that Harry commanded.

Ginny also had the knowledge of what Legilimency was- so she spent her time constructing fiery walls around her mind. Not as creative as Harry's, to be sure- but that was the disadvantage of growing up a Pureblood- she just didn't have the creativity of a Muggle born or raised. Or at least- that was what an invader would be led to believe.

Behind the great, clichéd fiery walls lay… a sand pit-like moat, filled with muggle toys. Muggle toys that attacked with potions and poisons; that could only be stilled with the right words. Beyond that lay a towering castle, filled to the brim with inconsequential memories and such things. A few more important ones, to be sure. However, the truly important memories were hidden better than that. They were buried in the sandpit. And could only be found if you dug tem up with the right toy. The walls would hold, though, so unless someone with more creativity than her attempted to breach them, the sandpit was relatively unnecessary.

That was the thing with Legilimency- it was the uncreative that attempted to master it, but only the truly creative people would succeed. The creative people could come up with more inventive ways of getting the same information… and get the information in a more subtle way, to be sure.

Hermione walked back into the room just as the other two were stirring, with a small beaded purse clutched in her right hand.

"You're awake," was all she said, glaring at the two of them. Harry blushed. Ginny, however, glared right into her. Harry wasn't sure, but he thought that she was chastising Hermione for blaming them for the timing of their Magical Maturity. His mind was more… pleasantly engaged.

"Harry? Harry! Harry, snap out of it!" He jerked, and his cheeks flamed as he realised that both girls were staring at him, concern peering out of their expressive eyes. He turned to face the window, preferring to watch the small flag flutter in the breeze, and the rolling mountains beyond it rather than face their questioning glances. It didn't work.

"Harry, look at us," said Ginny, "we were discussing the mission, and I was going to remove the Trace from your wand… but if you can't look at us, then we can't include you in the conversation." That didn't help either; just turned his cheeks an even brighter red as he turned around again, face pointing determinedly at his feet. He would _not_ let them see how red he had gone, he would _not._ Instead, he silently handed over the wand that was hiding in his back pocket, much to the disappointment of Hermione who had listened to Mad-Eye's rants.

"At least I know what to get you for your Birthday," she muttered under the breath- but Harry, who had gained enhanced hearing, heard it clearly, though he pretended not to. What on earth did she mean?

"Thank you, Harry," said Ginny softly as she took the wand gently out of his hand, her skin brushing against his as she did so. Harry's breath caught as the soft skin brushed against the top of his hand, the warmth was amazingly gentle; not something he had expected from the youngest of seven, and with six elder brothers. Well, he wasn't sure what he had expected _exactly,_ but that was not it. She muttered something under her breath, his wand flashed, and she handed it back to him.

"There," she said, with not a small amount of pride in her expression, "I did it. You can use it now!" He grasped the wand as warmth spread through his body, infusing every particle of his skin with a tingling sensation that he remembered, associated with the first time he had ever held his wand.

"It's celebrating," said Hermione, "Your wand is celebrating the fact that it can now perform your magic uninhibited."

"Uninhibited?"

"It means that there's nothing…"

"I _know_ what it means," said Harry irritably, "but _why_ was it inhibited in the first place?" Hermione blushed, realising her mistake. _How _could she have forgotten what he had told them only a few hours previously about his intellect?

"The Trace includes a tracer, stopping the wand from preforming spells that are either deemed too difficult or too Dark for people under legal age to be performing- all Dark spells are blocked, as well as a few light spells like warding," explained Hermione, the dull flush never leaving her cheeks. Harry nodded, but he still looked puzzled.

"Why was the Patronus not blocked then?" he asked. Hermione adopted his puzzled look- Ginny, however, did not. Instead, she grinned triumphantly.

"Two reasons," she said, "one; to perform the spell itself doesn't require that much power- it has more to do with the emotions which is why it is more difficult around more Dementors. It's emotionally draining, more than magically. Secondly- when the Tracer was developed, the magical world was in a terrible war against Grindelwald. That was why the Tracer was originally developed, to stop those who had not enough experience to resist Grindelwald's speeches from learning the Dark Arts. It was therefore a requirement of the Wizengamot that no spells that were classed as Defence against the Dark Arts would be blocked from the wands, no matter the power they required. It was up to the teacher to only introduce spells that the student was capable of." Hermione shook her head.

"That's ridiculous, if they had that much control over the student, the Tracer wouldn't be required." Ginny just shrugged.

"So…" said Harry, attempting to diffuse the tension, "what was this information that you gave Hermione?" It was an innocent question, but it had the opposite effect to that which Harry had intended. Both Ginny and Hermione tensed, their shoulders hunched over as worried expressions crossed their faces.

"A- are you sure you want to know?" asked Ginny hesitantly, and Harry nodded. She and Hermione exchanged looks before Ginny sighed deeply, her eyes sparkling in a way that didn't look happy. It could have been tears, but that just seemed so… wrong… when it came to Ginny Weasley.

"Well," began Ginny sadly, "I overheard this the other night when I went downstairs to get some hot chocolate because I couldn't sleep. Mum, Ron and Percy were in the kitchen…"

"Wait- _Percy?_" Harry interrupted.

"That's what I thought," Ginny nodded, "I thought he still wasn't speaking to us. Turns out, he just wasn't speaking to Dad, Bill, Charlie and I. I decided to listen to their conversation a little before I interrupted- what if they were talking about something I didn't want to be a part of? Turns out that was a good thing… for you."

Harry was beginning to get a very, _very_ bad feeling about this 'information.' Ginny took a deep breath and continued.

"They were discussing… you," said Ginny, "and it wasn't very nice." Suddenly, she paled, and ran out of the room. Harry and Hermione shared shocked looks- but there wasn't time to wonder about it, because almost immediately, Ginny rushed back in.

"I think this might give you a better idea," she explained, holding up a small object.

"A mirror?" asked Harry sceptically, and Ginny shook her head.

"It's not a mirror," she said, "its Fred and George's latest invention. It's like a Pensive, but it lets a larger group of people watch the memory- and it's from outside of the viewer's perspective. The memory can't be tampered with, either." Harry nodded as Ginny added the particular memory to the surface of the mirror, and they… watched.

~()~

Percy, Ron and Molly were huddled around the kitchen counter, talking in hushed voices. The light was dull, so they couldn't make out the expressions on their faces, so they strained to hear the conversation that was taking place.

"…few more weeks, Ron," hissed Percy.

"A few more weeks is too long!" Ron said, "I want him out now!"

"So do I, Ronnie, but we need his Gringotts key first and once he's of age we can let him go. If we send him off now, the potions won't work properly!" said Molly patiently.

"Why not?" asked Ron stubbornly.

"Ron," said Percy exasperatedly, "we've been over this a thousand times! Potter needs to take all 6 doses for it to work at all; otherwise it won't get through his system properly! He can only have one a week; if we give him more than that he will be poisoned and either die or be sent to St Mungos and they would ruin the plan!"

"Why don't we just kill him then?" asked Ron.

"If we kill him, people will talk. They will know what we did and then the Wizarding world will turn on us! Potter is the only one that can kill Voldemort! We can't take his powers or his money if he dies before he is of age! How are they for a few reasons! Want some more? I would lose my job; mum would be cast out of the Weasley family, as would you and I. Mum would get sent to Azkaban along with me; you could plead your age and get locked in St Mungos if you tried, but I doubt it would work as you are of age and can't afford a lawyer." Percy continued to rant for a few more minutes before Molly shut him up.

"Okay, I get it," Ron grumbled, "Potter can stay in my room for a few more weeks. Then the potions are finished and we can send him off to kill Voldemort. When he kills Voldemort, he dies and we get all of his money. But how do you know the potions will work?"

Molly and Percy just glared at him. Ron glared back for a minute before ducking his head, ears flaming red.

"Alright, the potions will work," he grumbled, "I'm going to bed." And he stomped up the stairs, only just missing Ginny in his anger. The memory ended, and the mirror went blank for a second before reflecting the room again.

~()~

Harry stared at the mirror, lost for words. Speechless. Hermione and Ginny saw his devastated look and quickly dropped down onto the ground on either side of him and wrapped their arms around his emaciated body, their legs curled up beneath them. They stayed that way for several hours.

**Thanks to my awesome sister, and Beta; Sarakitty for doing an amazing job of translating my drivel **

[End of Chapter One. Please review!]


	2. Obliviate!

_**Chapter Two;**_

As they say, things always look better after some food and a sleep. For Harry, this was especially true. True, he was careful with what he ate after the revelation of the potions, but after some sleep he was able to spot Ron's behaviour from previous years. The loss of his friendship was only a blow as Ron had been his first friend. He was definitely not his most faithful friend. Percy… well… he had already betrayed him. The only shock was that the older boy was not completely against killing him. No, it was Molly that struck him the hardest as he had always treated her as a surrogate mother. Heaven knows she had treated him as another son… to his face only, apparently. Harry wasn't going to think about them again until he could come to grips with the betrayal. It was too enormous for him to deal with at the moment. Not after Dumbledore's death.

Harry yawned and sat up. Ron's snores were coming from just above him and he lifted his chin slightly to see the stretched figure fast asleep on top of the Chudley Cannons sheets. Harry rolled his eyes at the sheer amount of _orange_ in the room. And wondered if the colour was affecting Ron's already less-than-stellar personality. After all, the muggles did say that the colours you are surrounded with can severely affect the way you think and behave. Harry shrugged and got up. He glanced at his wand for a second, but decided to leave the Obliviate to Hermione- she had actually used the curse before. He didn't want to mess it up as the risks were too large. Sighing, Harry quickly got changed and left the room. It was time for his meeting with Hermione and Ginny. He jogged the last few steps, and made it to the hatch that led to the attic just before Ginny was able to shut it behind her.

"Ginny!" he hissed, "leave it open for me!" A mess of red hair fell down the hatched, followed by Ginny's head.

"Harry," she smiled, "come up! Hermione's already up here." Harry nodded and climbed up the set of stairs that had fallen down when Ginny opened it up, before tapping it with his wand and allowing the hatch to shut behind him.

It was dark in the attic, and musty. A small, grimy window was letting a stream of light in, highlighting the masses of dust that were floating around, mostly undisturbed. He could only just make out Hermione's face, crouched a few feet to his left. He let out a huge groan and collapsed onto the ground, folding his legs behind him. Beside him, Ginny did the same- only… silently.

"Alright," said Hermione professionally, taking over the role of secretary, "what are we talking about today?"

"Ron's obliviation," said Harry immediately, the boy's face swimming before him, sneering at him and laughing as he told the world what he was doing. He shivered involuntarily. The idea was too horrible to think about.

"My inclusion!" Ginny chipped in, looking happy at that. Harry smiled. _'I have got to make her smile like that more often,'_ he thought, having no idea why he felt that way. He had broken up with her… right? Hermione nodded and scribbled both topics down as a heading on different sheets of parchment. Harry marvelled at her organisation. Then he remembered something.

"The potion the… others… are slipping me," he said in a dark tone, and the smile slid off Ginny's face. _'Damn.'_

Hermione, however, just nodded and pulled out another sheet of parchment. Soon, there was a title on it; '_The Potion.'_

"Right," said Hermione briskly, "first on the agenda in Ronald's Obliviation. Thoughts?" Ginny cracked up.

"Yeah," said Harry, "you should do it for us, and as soon as possible!" Ginny burst out laughing- hysterically. Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but it died on her lips.

"I see your point," she said finally, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Hermione was learning to control herself. Not even a month ago, she would have exploded, furious that he was taking advantage of her. Now she was thinking it through- though it sounded strange to be glad that _Hermione_ of all people was thinking. She was, after all, the smartest witch of her age! However, what most people didn't realise was that the smarts were mostly only book related. She had little practical experience and was not one of the best in the area of common sense. That was Harry and Ginny's forte!

Hermione let out a loud sigh and made a small note on the parchment before shuffling it down to the bottom of the stack.

"Next on the agenda is Ginny's involvement."

"Yes!" cheered Ginny, pumping a fist into the air. "What are we going to talk about?"

"How we are going to keep it secret," said Harry immediately, "and how to keep your education going and… other things." Ginny nodded. Hermione looked vaguely confused, but was trying to hide it.

"We just don't tell anyone about it," said the older girl. Harry and Ginny both immediately shook their heads.

"No," said Ginny, "that won't work. There's too many… well, I don't know what you would call them. But don't you think mum will notice if I keep sneaking off with the two of you- and Ron knows nothing about it? What about when I don't get my books and things for Hogwarts? I don't get ready for school? My belongings are all packed? And how about when I leave? What will happen when they realise that I don't turn up at school and the ministry people come looking for me? What then?" Hermione's cheeks flamed pink.

"Okay," Harry quickly took control, "first, we can only meet _really_ early in the morning. How's 6? That way we can sneak in and out of here without anyone else waking up." Ginny immediately shook her head.

"Mum gets up really early to make breakfast and do work around the house," she explained, "and Dad's a really light sleeper."

"So how did we manage to get this meeting?" Harry asked. This time, it was Ginny's turn to go pink.

"I- I drugged them," she said, "with a sleeping potion. They should sleep until midday. We just have to pretend that we were sleeping as well." Harry and Hermione both stared at the younger girl.

"That's brilliant!" said Harry, "good thinking!"

"It was nothing," said a blushing Ginny, "you would have done the same had you known. Now can we please change the topic?" Harry smiled.

"Okay, so we can't meet in the mornings. Night?"

"That should work," said Ginny slowly, a frown marring her features, "Dad usually goes out to the shed early on and mum likes to get to bed so that she can wake up in the morning… but I don't think it's so bad if Dad catches us. He's not in on the plot and he will understand better than mum." Harry nodded, and grinned at them.

"So, we'll come up here an hour after we've been sent to bed. We'll just set the meeting days the meeting before! Or…" He trailed off as an idea came to him. Luckily, Hermione noticed the look and realised what his idea was.

"The galleons," she said, amazed, "brilliant, Harry! Only, we need to redo them so that only you, Ginny and I can use them. We all need the master coin, too… unless we don't use a galleon? After all, there's no reason to carry it around the Burrow, so it might look suspicious. Parchment? No… you wouldn't normally carry writing utensils with you, would you Harry? …a knut might be alright, we could be 'having bets with the twins' all the time… or just be so used to it that we have it as a precaution for when they sneak up on us! Or maybe…"

"Hermione," Ginny interrupted, grinning, "you're babbling again!" Hermione flushed pink, but Harry thought the babbling was cute. _'Where did that come from? I thought I liked Ginny, you can't like two girls at once… can you?'_ Apparently, you could. He ducked his head to hide his face. When Harry came up, Hermione was scribbling on parchment and waving her wand over three knuts simultaneously. He smiled. It was such a typical sight.

"Done," said Hermione triumphantly, handing them each a knut, "you set the time the same way we did with the DA. Ginny, Harry showed you how, right?"

"Yep," she said cheerfully. Hermione smiled approvingly, before looking back at Harry.

"Any more ideas?"

"Uh… what was next on Ginny's list of difficulties… preparing for school! Do it anyway, we can use the books and the equipment to help you keep up with your school work. You should be able to get through it much faster without anyone else in the class to slow you down." Ginny nodded, and Hermione once more made a note on her parchment.

"So I'll get ready for school as usual, pack my trunk and everything," said Ginny, "if we think we will need to leave that day we can shrink it down and add it to the supplies." Harry grinned.

"Great! That way you can look as though you are going back to school and you can fit some of our supplies in your trunk as well! Two birds with one stone."

"Some, not all," said Ginny, "you know there's a chance we will have to leave too suddenly to collect the trunk." Harry nodded. As they were discussing, the scratching of Hermione's quill became a more and more familiar sound until they were startled when it stopped. They turned to look at Hermione.

"You stopped coming up with ideas," she explained, and the two of them were suddenly very embarrassed.

"Sorry, Hermione," said Harry, but she shook her head.

"I'm sorry that I can't keep up with your planning! My parents always said that I have the street smarts of a small child. I guess they were right." Harry and Ginny couldn't think of anything to say to that, so they left it.

"What's next?"

"Um… what happens when I leave?"

"What was Ron going to do about that?" asked Hermione.

"He was… going to transfigure the ghoul! We exorcised it!" Ginny exclaimed, annoyed.

"No we didn't," said Hermione, an unusual smirk crossing her features, "we just sent it on a trip to Ronald's bedroom." Twin grins cracked Ginny and Harry's faces.

"So… I take it your cover is taken care of?" he asked tentatively. Ginny just laughed and nodded.

It was then that Harry realised he was getting remarkably stiff. He got up onto his feet and slowly stretched out his muscles, minding his head on the severely sloping ceiling.

"I feel a bit like that too," said Ginny, clambering to her feet to join in on the stretching routine Harry was inventing on the spot.

"You two have fun," said Hermione, "I'm far too used to sitting in this position for entire days for it to be bothering me!" Ginny just threw a musty blanket at her.

"Hey!" cried Hermione indignantly when she managed to pull the heavy blanket off her, "what was that for!" Ginny just sniffed and continued to stretch.

"Okay, I'm good," said Harry, sitting back down, "what time is it, anyway?"

"You can perform magic now, remember?" asked Hermione.

"Oh yeah!" said Harry, who had indeed forgotten that small fact, "tempus!" Hermione rolled her eyes at the verbal spell casting but stared at the flashing numbers all the same.

"About ten," said Harry finally, "so we have about two hours before everyone else wakes up."

"I'm not sure about that," Ginny warned him, "the twins are far too good- they spike people's food and drinks so often that it's not funny! I'm sure they will have been able to tell that the food was spiked."

"Doesn't matter," said Harry after a pregnant pause, "the twins are alright. They'll understand, but they also have a shop and jobs. They wouldn't want to abandon them to come with us. They will be fine." Hermione just sighed.

"Next on the agenda- the potion." They all dropped their cheerfulness.

"I'll look for it," said Ginny determinedly, "it's my family that is trying to potion you. I need to know."

"I'll help," said Hermione, "I might be able to help you identify the potion once you find it. I won't be much help in the search though; I still don't know the hidden places of theBurrow. It's your home." Ginny nodded and smiled at the girl as Harry confessed that he didn't exactly want to help- it would make it too real for him.

"Done!" said Hermione cheerfully as she finished her last note with a flick of her wrist, "I'm done. We're done! But I think this attic could do with a clean," she said, sniffing with distaste. Ginny just grinned at her.

"I'll do the dusting," the younger volunteered, "mum taught me the spell for it."

"I'll try to organise everything in here," Harry added his contribution, "I've done that often enough at the Dursleys and magic will make this ten times easier!"

"I guess I'll just to the odd little things that I see around, then," said Hermione, "I can do that." The three of them nodded and set about making the attic inhabitable. It was hard work.

It was worth it. Harry and Hermione managed to dig up a set of desks and several large muggle filing cabinets. They built a wall of boxes and Hermione charmed a door to open only for the three of them before creating an office in the walled off section. Ginny managed to find a muggle water maker and Hermione got it to work. With the dusting, the place was much nicer and Hermione's refreshing charms worked better than they imagined.

"Done," said Ginny happily, collapsing on the old couch in their 'office,' "that was hard work!"

"I agree," said Hermione, curling up on the armchair next to the other girl, "I've never done anything like that!"

"Neither- hey! Where's Harry?" Hermione shot up.

"I'm here!" came a muffled voice from the other side of the 'wall,' "I've found something brilliant- and you really need to put up some silencing charms on the wall!" Ginny blushed at that, knowing just how important those sorts of charms were at the Burrow. Hermione just looked curious. She didn't have to wait long.

A few minutes later, the door swung open and Harry walked in- lugging a huge window with him. He quickly put it down and sat on the floor, panting.

"It's- charmed," he explained once his breath had come back, "we can install it and it will show us whatever view we want. Like the windows in the Ministry. Unfortunately, they don't show what is actually happening in places. Just the general view." The two girls nodded, knowing exactly how those windows worked. They were just unsure as to how Harry was planning on installing the massive window- it would take up an entire wall! They soon worked out what he was planning, though, when he pulled out his wand and said 'Bombarda!' The back wall gave out, and rubble fell down into the backyard.

"Harry!" Hermione admonished, but Harry was already onto in. He sprang over to the gaping hole and leaned out. He quickly vanished all the pieces of rubble before levitating the window into position.

"Don't know why I didn't think of that before," he drawled, "it would have helped a lot! Reparo," he added, with a flick of his wand and the window was sealed into place. He tapped it with his wand and suddenly there was an image of rolling hills outside, similar to the area around the Burrow but not quite.

Harry moved over to the remaining armchair and collapsed into it.

"Why didn't we do that with Mrs Black?" he asked, waving a careless hand in the direction of the window.

"What; replaced her?"

"No," said Harry, "just gotten rid of the wall that she was attached to! We could have replaced it later… like muggle renovations." The girls gaped at him.

"All that time, trying to remove the painting from the wall… _why didn't we just get rid of the wall?_ It's not like that wall was doing anything, other than holding up that one portrait! In fact, had the wall not been there, it might have been slightly more welcoming," said Hermione, groaning. To think that they didn't have to listen to Sirius' mother screeching all day!

"or we could have set fire to her," said Harry. Ginny shook her head.

"No, there would have been spells against that, and they probably would have had some nasty repercussions," she said. Harry nodded.

Suddenly, Hermione jumped.

"It's almost time for the others to wake up!" she hissed, "we need to get out of here and back into bed!" Harry and Ginny leapt to their feet and rushed out of the office into the main attic- which looked much, _much_ better than it had when they arrived. Which was a good thing- for it reminded Ginny of something…

"_Accio_, ghoul!" she cried, and the family ghoul came whizzing into the attic. The three of them plugged their noses and left as quickly as possible, the sudden stench unbearable after the nice aroma of the refreshing charms Hermione had cast. Once they were all down the stairs, Hermione tapped them with her wand and they retreated back up into the ceiling.

"See you girls when you wake up," Harry teased, before waving goodbye and jogging down the stairs. He made it to Ron's room and shut his eyes before opening the door. The orange tended to blind him if he didn't get them closed in time.

To his relief, Ron was still snoring and he quickly undressed, put his night clothes back on and dove under the covers. He had to be asleep. Had to be asleep. Had to be…

Something was shaking him. Harry groaned, and tried to roll over. He was comfortable! The shaking increased.

"Come on mate, get up! We've slept in and mum's gonna be mad!" It was Ron's voice. What- what was happening? Slowly, his memories came trickling back. He tried to suppress a groan. It didn't work. _Brilliant._ At least he made it back in time.

[end of chapter two. Please Review!]

…hey, that rhymes!

**AN: Thanks to my wonderful sister and Beta who is doing such an amazing job of translating this into English from whatever random language I seem to write in. I'm sure it helps your understanding of the plot immensely.**


	3. Potions and Wedding Preparations

_**Chapter Three;**_

Harry spent the next few days attempting to master his Metamorphmagic. It was surprisingly easy, but required both concentration, and intimate knowledge of your body. He also supposed he was lucky- Hermione had told him that most Metamorphs tended to have terrible balance, and they decided that it was the fact that they were constantly shifting their body weight around, meaning they were forever unused to their own body. That would also tend to make morphing more difficult. The two of them made the decision that he would not shirt his weight unless it was the direst of circumstances, and then he would only do it a very little- then again, it's not like he had all that much body weight in the first place!

Hermione and Ginny were still searching for the potion he was being drugged with, but Molly Weasley was not making things easy for them. Mountains upon mountains of work was piled on top of all of them in preparation for Bill and Fleur's wedding, and they were rarely ever given a break. Apparently, before Hermione managed to Obliviate Ron, the boy had managed to tell his mother that Harry and Hermione were not planning on returning to Hogwarts and was a devil at keeping them apart. Thankfully, she seemed to think that alternating the time the two of them spent with Ginny would encourage them to return to their schooling. Ginny was instructed to remind them of how much fun it was at Hogwarts. All three of this found it hilarious, and Ginny was glad as it meant that her mother hadn't found out that she was going with the others. She didn't want to be anywhere near her mother when the woman found out.

The other thing they had on their side was the charmed knuts. The coins were doing an amazing amount of work, communicating meeting times- or times when the three of them could just relax in their office, the most peaceful spot in the house.

Now, though, Harry had a job to do. He stood in front of the mirror, toying with his appearance. So far, his nose was smaller, lips smaller and slightly scrunched, his face slightly more rounded and his eyes were hazel. His skin tone had lightened dramatically. Now all was left was his hair… he slowly shortened it until it was just off his scalp and lightened it to a dull blonde.

"There!" He smirked triumphantly, and turned to face the two boys in the room. "There. This will be my disguise!"

"Disguise?" asked George,

"What disguise" continued Fred,

"are you" George took over,

"talking about?" Fred finished with a smirk.

"The one I'm wearing," Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh," said Fred,

"that one," said George. Harry nodded patronisingly.

"I can't really walk around Diagon Alley as Harry Potter, can I? This is what I'm going to look like when I need to communicate with you. You know I'm not going back to school?" The two pranksters nodded.

"Well, I'm going to be on a mission from Dumbledore. I will probably need your help along the way so… if you see a man that looks the way I do now, it probably is me!"

"Okay, Harry," said George, serious for once.

"We'll do our best to help you. Is there anything we should know? Or prepare?" Fred finished for his brother. Harry thought for a moment.

"Yes. You can't tell anyone. Did Ginny show you her memory?" The boys nodded, looking outraged.

"Good," said Harry, "then I should tell you- Ginny's coming with us."

"What?"

"Will she be alright?"

"I can't promise that she will be alright," said Harry sadly, "but I will do my best to look after her. She will be safer than at Hogwarts, as we're pretty sure that Voldemort's about to get his hands into that school. But she will still be fighting Voldemort, and that's never safe."

"We know," said Fred, "but we trust you to look after our little sister. She will probably learn more than enough between you and Hermione, anyway… should we get the NEWT test papers ready? We'll send them to you a month after you leave!" Harry snorted.

"No, we'll be fine. But… we could do with a few… products… from that wonderful store of yours!" Two evil grins suddenly adorned the faces of the 'innocent' pranksters.

"How much luggage are you taking?"

"Undetectable extension charm," said Harry wearily, "we can take as much as we like." George grinned evilly at him.

"You are about to regret saying that, my dear brother," he said to Harry, "meet me here tomorrow. You're about to get a large supply of everything valuable!" Harry groaned.

Luckily for the younger boy, a distraction came just in time.

"Boys! Hermione! Ginny! Come down into the kitchen, will you! I've got some more jobs for everyone!" The twins groaned, but Harry let out a sigh of relief. The twins were… scary. Jobs were horrible, but if they saved him from death by twin attack… Harry shuddered as he watched the older boys get up from their position on the floor. At least they had turned off the twin-speech when they realised that it was a serious conversation. _That_ was liable to kill him. Thankfully, he was standing and was able to sprint out the door, leaving the two of them behind.

"Thanks, Fred, George!" as he jumped over the threshold. He was already in the kitchen by the time the twins managed to close their door.

"Harry, dear, that was quick!" said Molly, and Harry gritted his teeth. This was the woman that only disagreed to killing him because it would put her family in a bad position legally. He supressed a shudder. She was evil. At least Voldemort didn't try to hide it! Okay… he supposed that was a bit of an overreaction… but he _really _didn't like the woman now!

"Well, seeing as you're down first, can I get you to go out and help Arthur weed the garden?" Harry just nodded mutely.

"Thank you, Harry dearest," she said, ushering him out of the house. Harry was sure she wished it was permanently.

He spotted the balding man squatted over a bush in the far corner of the garden, wrestling with a runner. Harry grinned and moved over to him. He didn't mind working in the garden, but it looked as though Arthur had minimal experience.

"Hello, Harry," said the man quietly, "I assume Molly sent you out here to help?" Harry nodded. From the tone Arthur used for his wife's name, he assumed Ginny had shown him the memory as well. Still, he needed to confirm.

"You saw it?" those were the only words necessary.

"Ginny showed it to everyone in the family that wasn't a part of that conversation," the older man confided. Harry squatted down next to him, and traced a finger through the dusty earth.

"Yeah, she showed it to Hermione and I as well," he admitted, "I wasn't very happy."

"I can't imagine you were," said the man seriously, "I was furious, and it was you they were talking about! Besides the fact that you have been nothing but another son to us, the Weasley family also owes you three life debts and a debt of gratitude! Anyway… we can discuss them at a later time. Now we need to work, or Molly will… well… let's just get to work." Harry nodded, and smiled at the man.

"Unfortunately, I don't actually know any spells to make this easier, so we have to do it the muggle way!" Somehow, Arthur didn't actually sound disappointed by that. Harry laughed.  
"That's alright," he said, "I've had plenty of practice," he added in an undertone. Either Arthur didn't hear him, or the man had excellent acting skills. Somehow, Harry thought it was the latter.

Leaving his drawing in the dirt, Harry began to move around the garden, pulling out the weeds and pruning back the bushes. Unfortunately, it was a magical garden- and that spelled trouble.

"Ouch!" Harry yelped for the fourth time, "the flower just bit me," he added, slightly embarrassed as he glared at the light pink specimen. In response, the flower opened its petals a little wider, giving him the 'I'm innocent, I'm a flower!' look. Harry snorted. He didn't believe it for a second. The flower was evil. The pink was proof of that! There was a sharp poke to his back, and Harry whirled around, his wand outstretched. A small green vine was waving merrily at him. When it 'spotted' him looking, it quickly stretched itself out to point at Arthur who was thoroughly engrossed in his work at the other end of the garden. There was no way he was going to believe the plant! He reached down to pull the vine out the ground, but was quickly whipped across the face by the nearby tree. He groaned. This garden really, _really _hated him. It wasn't fair! Harry huffed, before looking down at his wand. A smirk slowly spread across his face. So the spell was dark, and dangerous for use on humans. But dark spells could be helpful, sometimes…

"Sectumsempra!" he whispered, not wanting Arthur to hear him. "Ha!" he cheered at the vine fell to the ground, without him having to touch it, "I win!" The rest of the garden was soon undergoing similar treatment.

~()~

Half an hour later, Arthur turned to see how far along Harry had gotten. The boy was standing beside the last tree in the yard.

"Well done, Harry! It looks marvellous!" And it did. The garden was pruned so well, Arthur almost believed the boy had used magic to do it! If only there were spells that could do that… he shrugged. Harry _had _said that he had experience dealing with gardens, so it was probably just his experience coming through.

Speaking of Harry, Arthur couldn't believe how calmly the boy was taking the betrayal. He remembered what he himself had done after watching the memory…

~()~

FLASHBACK:

The mirror went blank as the memory ended. Arthur unclenched his fists, noting the deep fingernail indents in his palm that looked ready to bleed. He took in a deep breath, calming himself.

"Excuse me," he ground out, and stood up. He forced himself to walk calmly to the door and through the house. The walk seemed to take forever. Finally, he was in his shed. He quickly placed silencing and locking charms on the door and reached for the nearest object.

With a huge grunt, the lightbulb went flying across the room before shattering loudly on the wall. He smiled slightly as he reached for the next object. Who knew smashing things felt so good? 'Smash!' 'Crash!' 'Bang!' Flying objects soon filled the room, shattering loudly when they impacted with anything else in the room. Arthur stood in the middle of it all, surrounded by the whirlwind of objects. Occasionally, he would pick up another object and add it to the mix, or shout 'Bombarda!' and have some of the already-airborne objects exploded.

Small cuts and bruises littered his body, but Arthur barely noticed in his anger. Finally, after all of the objects in the shed were damaged in one way, shape or form, Arthur managed to calm himself down.

"I will not kill Molly. I will not kill Percy, I will not kill Ron," became his mantra as he heavily overused the Reparo charm to make his shed look normal again. He had never been in such a rage before, and if Molly saw it, she would probably assume the worst. That was _not _good. Soon, everything was fixed again, and Arthur healed the cuts and bruises on himself. They were all minor enough that he knew how to deal with them. He had never told any of his sons, but he was sure that his hospital record at Hogwarts was almost as extensive as Harry's- and that was saying something! In all that time, he had picked up quite a few little healing tricks.

Once he was satisfied that everything was right again- including himself, Arthur tore down the silencing and locking charms (it was so much more satisfactory that taking them down nicely) and moved calmly back towards the house.

"'Night, Molly," he said cheerfully, nodding to his wife who was sitting beside the fire knitting another one of her thousand sweaters.

"Goodnight, Arthur," she said and for a split second, Arthur's rage came back. He suppressed it ruthlessly and nodded to her before getting up the stairs to his bedroom as quickly as possible without looking suspicious. How was he ever going to last now that he knew what they had done?

END FLASHBACK

~()~

Arthur assumed that Harry must just be blocking the memory out until he felt ready to deal with it. He didn't blame the boy, though he knew that it would probably be somewhat detrimental to the boy's health. Who wouldn't want to block out something like his best friend, their brother and mother betraying them that badly. He shuddered at the thought.

~()~

Harry was extremely pleased when he finally finished working in the garden, as he had just felt the Knut in his pocket heat up. He looked over to check that Arthur wasn't watching him, and quickly slid it out of his pocket. One of the girls had just called a meeting in the office. He slid the Knut back into his pocket just as Arthur looked over at him, a strange expression in his eyes. It cleared, though, as he began to walk towards him.

"You've done a great job, Harry," the man praised when he was close enough, "I've never seen the garden look this good in my life! Go have a break," the man said, a strange glint in his eyes as he said 'break.' Harry's breath hitched. Did the man know? No, that was impossible. He nodded his thanks and made his way into the house, intent on getting up into the office.

~()~

Arthur chuckled as he watched the young man walk away from him. He did a good job of hiding things, but he had noticed the boy pull the coin out of his pocket and look at it.

Still, it wouldn't have been all that suspicious- except for the fact that both Ginny and Ron had told him about the way the DA used to communicate meeting times.

Then there was the way the boy approached him as soon as he put the coin away, and the look of determination. Oh, there was a meeting now, he was sure of it. He just wasn't sure of where it was or who was going to be there. Never mind, it didn't really matter to him. As long as the boy was busy and doing something worthwhile… and there was no strangers coming into his home. Spies were just not worth the risk, in his opinion.

~()~

Harry made his way quickly up into the attic, and found both girls already sitting in the armchairs. He smiled as he took the couch. Nice of them to leave the best seating for him!

"I called this meeting," said Ginny immediately, "because I've found the potion." Harry and Hermione gasped, immediately becoming serious.

"Did you bring a sample?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"I did," said Ginny, pulling a phial out of her pocket, "and I replaced their entire stock with a powerful nutrient potion that can only be taken once a week… for three weeks."

"Perfect!" said Harry happily as Hermione took the potion, "but why do I need a nutrient potion?" Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Well, first of all, I had to replace it with something, and it obviously had to be a similar shade- so water wasn't going to do the trick. Second of all, look at you! You barely have anything on your bones, you must be severely underweight and you have no muscles. The nutrient potion will make your body react as though you are eating a perfect diet for your own body to deal with and get to its ideal… err… well… be ideal, anyway." She blushed. Hermione rolled her eyes as she heard Ginny's attempts to remember what the potion did.

"It will make your body grow and change until it is the way it should have been had you never been starved or denied food, and have always eaten a perfect diet for your body type," she told them before turning her attention back to the potion in her fingers.

"I know what it is!" she said triumphantly after several minutes, "it's a mixture of two different potions. One is a loyalty potion, keyed to Molly and Ronald. It would ensure that you always obeyed them." The girls snorted, and Harry looked disgusted. "The second," Hermione continued, "it a magical draining potion. It would slowly drain all of the magic out of you and into the people who administered it to you- Ron, Percy and Molly." Harry was horrified.

"How slowly?" he asked nervously.

"Two years," said Hermione grimly, "and then you would have been a squib. Thankfully, you need all six does for it to work." Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"And the loyalty potion?" asked Ginny anxiously.

"Normally," said Hermione thoughtfully, "you only need one does and the more you get of it, the stronger its affects; but… because it was linked with the draining potion, it also needed all six does." All three of them relaxed at that- even Hermione, because she gave them the answer as she figured it out.

"Good," said Harry, "did you get rid of all of their supplies just in case they figure out that it's a nutrient potion now, Gin?"

"Yep," she said smiling, "now as we're up here, shall we get a few more things ready for the hunt?" Hermione beamed at her, and suddenly there were books spread all over the floor as she sorted them between book they were and weren't going to take with them.

"Don't forget Grimmauld place has the Black Library," said Harry warningly, as Hermione tried to pack _Hogwarts; A History_ into her bag. Hermione blushed. They had decided that Mad-Eye's wards would be sufficient to keep Snape out, and it was under 'the most extensive wards of any property in Britain,' according to Sirius. They would just have to set up a few more, to keep some of the more unwanted people out.

Unfortunately, that conversation had also led to the breakdown of Hermione when she finally acknowledged that Mad Eye Moody, the survivor, was truly dead. He wasn't coming back.

~()~

[End of Chapter Three. Please Review!]

**AN: Thanks to my wonderful sister the Beta! Without her, this story wouldn't be… errr… readable! ** _oHo_


	4. Dumbledore's Foul

_**Chapter Four**_

Three weeks had passed, and the nutrient potions that Ginny had tricked Molly into adding to his meals had done Harry wonders. His 6 foot 4 build allowed him to tower over even the tallest Weasley and he was now within a healthy weight range. Ginny had forced him into weight training as well, so he had some muscles to show off as well- though they weren't all that spectacular. They were more like those of a dancer. Not many people of his now considerable height could be called lithe, but Harry was never normal!

That training was supplemented by all of the heavy work and running that Harry had done while at the Dursleys. The lack of nutrition hadn't allowed the muscles to form properly, but the potions had fixed that and he now looked as though he'd been running and doing hard manual labour most of his life. It wasn't a bad look for a hero.

It was bad luck for Ginny. As she looked at her ex-boyfriends new body, she grew increasingly frustrated that she had let the boy break up with her. She loved him. She loved his personality and his character and all of his little quirks- but the new body just made it unbearable to be apart from him. She needed to convince him that she wasn't a silly little girl who needed to hide from Voldemort. Besides, if she was going on the hunt with him, her status as his girlfriend would hardly put her in any more danger, would it? Harry was just thick sometimes.

Ginny huffed and turned away. She needed to leave the room. Now. She walked through the corridors of the Burrow and while she did so, her mind wandered. She lost so much focus that she was only brought back to earth when she walked straight into the wall. Her knee throbbing, Ginny almost missed the wall shimmering. Luckily for her, she managed to just catch the movement out of the corner of her eye.

_What on earth is that?_ Ginny tentatively reached out a hand to touch the wall. It didn't. Her hand went straight through as though the wall had never been there. Where her hand went through, the wall rippled as though it was made from water. _That's strange,_ she thought, _I've never noticed this before!_ Slowly, Ginny moved her arm further into the wall. Nothing stopped her, so she cautiously walked through. It worked. Grinning triumphantly, she turned to face the wall again. It wasn't there; she could clearly see the hallway from this side of it- it must be an illusion. A well-done one at that!

_Might as well find out what's hiding in here,_ she decided, knowing that the Burrow had been built by Weasleys and had never left their family- so there couldn't be anything bad in here.

She lit her wand and began to explore the small room that she had just discovered. To her amazement, it was filled with filing cabinets… and a tiny potions lab! It was very small, mind you- just a tiny corner of the room- but it was a shock nonetheless. No Weasley had ever enjoyed potions! Well… besides the twins. But they had their own work station in their room!

There was a large desk, too. Ginny wondered who exactly had made this, for it looked quite modern and too well done for anyone that she could think of. Besides, who in their family would want such a secret area? Arthur had his shed, the twins had their room, Percy had his bedroom- he just wasn't this type of person! Then, she realised that she couldn't have known him all that well if the betrayal was anything to go by. Ron was far too lazy to do anything else, and her other brothers were far too outdoorsy and adventurous to want to be anywhere near such a small, dark space. It definitely wasn't like them. Molly… well, she had her kitchen.

Ginny quickly realised that the only way she was going to work this out was to look at some of the things in here… and hope that no one found her. That would be a disaster. She moved over to the desk and spotted a stack of parchment that looked like letters. She began to read through them.

~()~

_Molly,_

_Potter will be arriving at the Burrow in three days, Warn Ronald and Percival. I will have Severus bring the potions around._

_Remember to act the way you always do around him. _

_Do not let me down. _

_Albus._

~()~

Ginny was devastated. She felt as though her whole world had come crashing down around her. _Dumbledore. _The man was… he was every child's icon. The one who could never do anything wrong, who could fix anything. He was always there, a pillar, standing up against everything bad that the world could throw at them. For such a man to be involved in the plot was… devastating. She wasn't sure that there were sufficient words to describe such a betrayal! Ginny furiously wiped away at a tear that was rolling down her cheek. Angry, she ripped the letter in half. And again, unknowingly mirroring the stance that Ron had taken two years previously when Percy had sent him a letter telling him to disassociate himself with Harry. The only difference was that this time, it was Ginny and Ginny was sincere. That made the sight even worse. Her magic swirled around her and her hair fluttered in the breeze. She no longer looked like the youngest daughter, the child that everyone mistook her for. Ginny looked like a warrior, ready to stand beside Harry and fight to the death.

First, though, she had to go and talk to Harry. And Hermione. That girl would be utterly destroyed- Dumbledore was her hero. She and Harry would just have to be there for her, take over the role of the hero. Harry was capable of doing that, and he would do it without a second thought. He, unlike Dumbledore, truly was a hero in her opinion. He leapt into danger without a thought to save people he had barely seen before, and had risked his life time and time again for people he had never heard of. Dumbledore just pulled the strings. She couldn't believe she had ever thought well of the man. True, she hadn't known what he had done, but how could she have ever compared the man to _Harry?_ It was suddenly unthinkable.

Angrily, she shook her head and threw the little bits of confetti letter to the ground and stomped towards the 'doorway' of the secret room. She paused at the entrance, and turned around again. She should check the potions area, and calm herself down before she left. It would do no good to be caught in this mood by Molly. That woman was amazing when it came to wrangling secrets from people, and Ginny knew that she would stand no chance. If Voldemort ever managed to get a hold of her services, they would never be able to get a spy into his ranks… or hide secrets from him. It would be a disaster and she thanked the deities that her mother was firmly set in the light… even if she turned out to have very Dark tendencies.

~()~

Harry wasn't surprised. Angry, yes; but not surprised. He had decided that Dumbledore didn't have his best interests at heart by the end of fifth year, and he had been cautious around the man for all of his sixth year. That didn't mean he wasn't furious- he was! He could deal with it, though. He had actually suspected the man to be a part of the plot as soon as he discovered Molly's involvement- she was his best little puppet, after all.

He calmed himself down by remembering what had happened after Ginny had told Hermione. They had been talking the Girls room, and Hermione was madder than he had ever seen her before. He had slowly crept away from her, anxious to not annoy her further. Or insult her. It might have been the last thing he had ever done.

Fleur Delacour really had the _worst_ timing. Just as Hermione was looking around for someone to vent at, the woman had floated into the room to announce breakfast. He snorted when he remembered the look on the Triwizard competitor's face. She was more terrified than the time she had been just about to go out and face a dragon! Harry had made sure to tell Hermione that- after she had calmed down, of course. Fleur had been very, very careful around Hermione ever since, edging wearily around her as though she was liable to explode at any time. Harry and the girls found it hilarious.

Speaking of Fleur…

"'Arry!" she called, "Zere you are! Molly 'as been looking for you to ask 'ow you want to spend your birthzday!" The woman stopped beside him and raised her chin slightly to look him in the eyes. Harry smiled.

"Hello Fleur," he greeted, "Tell Molly I don't really want to make a fuss. It is the day before the wedding, after all…" Fleur smiled charmingly at him, and blushed slightly at the mention of the wedding.

"You are sweet," she said, "but we must do somethink for you! 'Ow about a dinner with some of your friends? I shall ask Molly for a list," she said decisively. She nodded and gave him a kiss on each cheek before gliding off down the hallway. Harry grinned ruefully. That woman would never let him get away with not celebrating his birthday properly. She still felt as though she owed him for saving Gabrielle. No matter what protests he put forward- not even 'she wasn't in real danger, they never would have let her get hurt!' Fleur had just given him a _look_ and insisted that he had saved her. Well, if she was going to insist…

The only problem he could see with it was that she had clearly told Gabrielle that he had definitely saved her life, and the little girl was moving about the house attempting to flirt with him _all the time._ It was really getting on his nerves! Ginny's too, apparently, as the girl tended to glare at Gabrielle whenever she saw the younger girl attempt to flirt. He just pretended not to notice. He shook his head ruefully and made his way towards Ron's orange room. He was apparently going to need a _lot_ of sleep tonight in Fleur was taking any part in the preparations for his birthday. It was going to be… big.

Harry groaned involuntarily as he thought about it. Hopefully, the woman would take his request to heart and not make it too big. He sighed as he pulled his night clothes on. The chances of that were minimal. Suddenly, the small camp bed he had been using looked incredibly inviting. The thin, ragged sheets looked warm and cosy, and he wondered if anyone would care if he just slept through all of tomorrow. Probably.

He sighed as he sank into the little bed. He was sure that tomorrow was going to be… interesting.

Harry woke to sunlight pouring onto his bed, right across his face. Harry groaned and squinted at the window. Why was it open? That wasn't normal… normally Ron left his heavy Chudley Cannons curtain over the window day and night, so why was it open?

That was when he felt the magic. A steady stream of magic, holding the curtain open coming from the doorway. He whipped his head around to see Fleur standing there; her wand pointed at the curtain and a smirk on her face.

"Salut, 'Arry," she said sweetly, "'Appy Birthday!" Harry just grunted.

"What time is it?" he finally managed to ask as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

"Oh, you 'ave slept in, 'Arry," she informed him, "Eet is six in the morning!" Harry just groaned loudly and threw his pillow at her. She dodged it, her smile growing even larger.

"You 'ave some more friends coming to say 'appy birthday now, 'Arry," she informed him.

"Why in the world would anyone get up at this bloody ridiculous time in the morning, anyway," he grouched quietly, "is there a reason you are trying to torture me so early?" he added in a volume that Fleur would be able to hear.

"Oui," she said cheerfully, "I 'ave come to tell you zat your friends 'Agrid, Remus and Tonks are coming over for dinner tonight to celebrate your birthday!"

"And that couldn't wait until a more reasonable time in the morning?" asked Harry sardonically.

"Non," she informed him with an evil grin, "and your friends are 'ere," she added and stepped out of the doorway.

"Hi Harry!"

"Morning, Harry!" it was Ginny and Hermione. Harry smiled a little grumpily at them, and got out the bed. He pretended to not notice when their cheeks tinged a little pink. _Brilliant!_

"Morning, Girls," he said, "Why am I so popular all of a sudden?"

"Well, Harry-" came Fred's voice, and Harry groaned.

"That's because-" George's voice floated through the doorway,

"It's your birthday!" both twins shouted, and Harry winced, pointing at the sleeping figure of Ron. The three Weasleys rolled their eyes.

"He wouldn't wake if Death Eaters set fire to the house," Ginny informed him lazily. Harry snorted, and remembered all the times he had tried, and failed, to wake Ron for classes.

"You're probably right, "he agreed, and Fleur looked surprised. Hermione didn't; she had been involved in Harry's failed attempts to wake him too many times.

"So why did-"

"-you ask?" the twins kept to their twinspeech.

"For a minute, I forgot that he was incapable of waking up," said Harry, "it might have something to do with the fact that _he _woke _me_ up a few weeks ago!" The twins just winced. Ron had little practice waking others, and he tended to get a little violent as they had found out the hard way.

"Au revoir," said Fleur quietly as she slipped away.

"Yeah, we-"

"-should go too," said the twins.

Harry sighed again as the girls left the room too, after wishing him a Happy Birthday. He decided that now he was awake, he might as well get ready for the day and pulled on some clothes before slipping outside to do his now daily workout. Ginny insisted on it, and had explained to Molly that it was necessary for him to defeat Voldemort. Or something along those lines, anyway- Harry wasn't sure what Ginny had said, and didn't want to. He wasn't sure that it would have been all that complimentary of him- they were sure that anything that would help him would be subtly discouraged.

He went in for breakfast and found himself swamped with presents. Fred and George had ended up giving him more products from their store even though they knew he had more than enough- they had seen to that after their conversation a few weeks ago. Bill and Fleur had given him a box of Lindt Chocolates- apparently, they had been exploring the Muggle world and decided that those chocolates were… well… they thought that not even the Malfoys would be able to fault them, even knowing that they were made by Muggles.

Madam and Monsieur Delacour had given him an enchanted razor;

"….but you must tell it exactly what you want… ozzerwise you might find you 'ave a leetle less 'air zan you would like…" was the instruction that Monsieur Delacour had given him.

Molly and Arthur had given him a new watch- well, it wasn't _new _but still. It was a watch, and he needed one. (Molly informed him that it had been her brothers, but Arthur came up to him later and informed him that Mundungus had stolen it, and then gave him a Wizarding Wireless for his birthday.)

"Open mine next, Harry!" said Hermione cheerfully, handing him a spherical package. It was reasonably heavy, and he quickly put it down on the table when he noticed her small, neat handwriting on the card; '_it's fragile!'_ He quickly unfolded the wrapping paper to find a rather large sneakoscope.

"It's the best one on the market at the moment," she informed him, "it's got better range, and it can also tell if someone is about to apparate to near you if they are untrustworthy."

"I heard about those!" said Ginny excitedly, "they're supposed to set up wards if they sense the Dark Mark anywhere nearby!"

"It probably doesn't do that, Gin," said Hermione gently, "and if it does, it won't have the power to set up wards that will actually stop any but the worst Death Eaters." Ginny looked a little downcast at that, and Harry resolved to talk to her about it later. She was probably upset that the wards wouldn't be good enough. She was only sixteen, and was coming with them on the Horcrux hunt- which was probably the most dangerous thing you could do in the current climate. The idea of protective wards like that was probably very comforting for her, and Hermione had just torn them down- not that she had any other options, of course.

Harry wrapped up the present unwrapping by opening Ginny's book on the latest Quidditch Strategies for Seekers and thanked them all. He was particularly amazed with Ginny's present- it was genius! He was particularly thankful for it as it would help to take his mind off the mission- something he badly needed to do. Secondly, it showed Molly that Ginny had no idea that they weren't returning to school… and the book was amazingly relevant. If he could finish this war early enough, Harry really wanted to play Quidditch professionally. He knew that most people would be unhappy with that dream, but the sport was the one thing that had always felt _right_ to him. It was the best stress reliever! He was truly competitive and knew that if he could make it to the top, he wanted to. Quidditch wasn't just a sport to him. Like his night shirt said; '_Quidditch is not a sport; it's a way of life'_ Somehow, Ginny must have found out about his dream. He hadn't told anyone, though! He shrugged and went outside. Molly wanted them to decorate the yard for the wedding tomorrow, and help to put the marquee up.

It didn't really take that long, and it was immensely satisfying to see the golden flags fluttering in the breeze above the marquee that they had put up. Arthur was especially pleased, as he had insisted on doing things the muggle way. Harry was sure that there was another reason for that, other than his muggle obsession. He was right- Arthur was actively attempting to keep out of Molly's way, and was trying to keep those not in on the plot away from her as well. Harry had to admit, the man was doing a brilliant job. He wondered if the sorting hat had considered his Slytherin material; he wouldn't be surprised!

Arthur had to go into the Ministry after lunch, and Harry spent the time helping Hermione and Ginny to make the trees look nice- Hermione seemed to have a particular obsession with making tree leaves look different colours, gold and silver being her two favourites. Ginny and Harry had to stop her from going overboard, and it was a very close call. That girl was stubborn!

They were in the kitchen, preparing Harry's birthday dinner when the man finally came back, behind his patronus announcing that the Minister was with him. Molly ushered them out of the kitchen to greet them, saying that she could look after the cooking. Harry did manage to get a glimpse of a potions phial in her apron pocket, so the Minister was probably not the only reason.

To Harry's shock, the Minister had come to release the contents of Dumbledore's will- and Harry had to try desperately to keep his anger at the man off his face.

Hermione apparently, joined him, noticing that the only thing of really value the man had left was for Ron- and Ron was the betrayer. Then again, Dumbledore was the instigator of the plot, and probably knew exactly what he was doing. Hermione probably only got _'Tales of Beedle the Bard'_ to make it look as though he was being fair. Really? A snitch?

The only thing of interest was the sword of Gryffindor- was it possibly that the sword could be used to destroy the Horcruxes? It was worth looking into. Harry and Hermione left the room fuming; Minister Scrimgeor was infuriating! The nerve of the man!

When they returned downstairs, Tonks and Hagrid had arrived- when Remus had heard of the Minister being there, he had elected to stay home, deciding that it would make things worse for Harry if he was seen there. The Ministry was apparently being very anti-werewolf.

Harry's birthday, disappointingly enough for Hermione and Ginny was thoroughly overshadowed by the upcoming wedding. It was all that anyone could talk about, and the two girls were not happy about it. They went into the kitchen and brought out the giant snitch cake that they and Harry had made under Molly's supervision- it looked spectacular, if they could say so themselves. They did have to admit, though, that it was Harry with the real experience in the kitchen. The Dursleys had seen to that. Still, it was great fun and Ginny turned out to be brilliant with the icing, managing many tine patterns all over the cake making it look incredibly real.

The cake partially did its job- people ate it, and the topic changed to Harry's 17th birthday… for a total of ten minutes before the returned their attention to the wedding. Hermione and Ginny finally gave up and went to sit with Harry. Rescuing him from Ron who was complaining about the robes he was going to have to wear the next day.

[End of Chapter Four. Please Review!]

**AN; Thanks to my sister for doing an amazing job, as well as to everyone who has read and reviewed so far! I love hearing what people have to say about my work, whether it is positive or not. I'm a big fan of constructive criticism when it comes to my writing. =) Thanks again! =)**

~()~


	5. The Wedding

_**Chapter Five**_

~()~

The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear. Harry woke earlier than usual, the lone rooster crowing it's annoyance at being trapped inside the chicken coop on such a nice day. He got up and shifted the curtain aside to look out the window. The flags on top of the marquee were fluttering in the cheerful breeze, and a lone cloud drifted across the otherwise bright blue sky. It was a rare day in England- it was warm and sunny. Harry smiled, unable to be unhappy on such a beautiful day and trudged sleepily down the stairs. Molly greeted him with a wide smile and offerings of bacon. Harry smiled his thanks and took a plate before retreating to the next room where he saw Hermione and Ginny already there and eating.

"Hi, girls," he said brightly, taking a seat near them, "why are you two up so early?"

"Ginny and I forgot to shut the curtain last night," said Hermione sheepishly, "it's not normally so bright this early in the morning and it woke us up." Harry just grinned at the outraged look on Ginny's face and began to eat his breakfast. Only Ginny could feel outraged at the fact that the sun dared to wake her up. With her mother's temper, Ginny would rant at the sun if she could get close enough for it to hear her. Or maybe she would just send a howler. Harry felt sorry for the poor owl.

"Morning, all," came a sleepy voice,

"Nice to see-"

"That we have-"

"Such a nice-"

"Reception committee!"

"Hey, Fred, George," said Harry wearily, really tired of all of the twinspeech they had subjected him to over the past few weeks.

"Hey, Harry," they said together, "I take it the rest of you were woken by the sun?"

"Yes." There was no mistaking the groan that came from everyone in the room at the moment.

"Stop complaining," Molly scolded as she came into the room with a stack of toast and a container of jam, "at least its good weather for the wedding. I was so worried that it would rain and make the wedding party miserable!" Harry sat up straight all of a sudden.

"When is the wedding party arriving?" he asked, worried. He needed to disguise himself, and he didn't want to let his secret out just yet. It wasn't a very good idea to let Ron know that he was a metamorph- it was another thing for him to become jealous over, and tell the world. He shuddered. That was his best weapon at the moment!

"The guest should be arriving at twelve," said Molly, the scold evident in her voice, "so you'd all best be ready!" She threw a glare at Fred, who had been loudly complaining about the hot robes he was being forced into, before flouncing out of the room in a remarkably Fleur-like way. It was amazing to think that the two women used to hate each other- they were so similar!

~()~

Harry finished his breakfast as quickly as possible and made his excuses, rushing out of the little room. He had to find Arthur. The man was in his shed, tinkering and looking more than a little nervous. Harry smiled sympathetically- he was about to truly acknowledge his eldest son as a man, and send him off to start his own family.

"You're not losing him, you know," said Harry from the doorway. Arthur whirled around, before relaxing when he realised who it was.

"Merlin, Harry, you worried me for a minute there!" he said, relieved.

"I meant it you know," Harry walked inside and leant against the bench after blowing a few bits of metal dust away from him, "Bill. You're not losing him."

"Aren't I?" asked Arthur, running a hand through balding hair, "I think I am. I mean, he's about to have his own family to look after- I know Fleur wants to have children as soon as possible and then he's going to be too busy to come and talk to us. There's a war going on, what if this is the last time I ever see my son?" Arthur was becoming hysterical.

"It won't be. Bill would never walk away from his family like that! He cares too much about you. There will be times where you won't see him as much as you would like, but Bill will not stay away for long. He loves you too much. He also knows how to take care of himself. He hasn't lived here for nine years now! Bill won't let himself, or any member of his family be killed off without putting up a real fight- and a good one. I don't think you need to worry," Harry told the older man gently, somehow knowing what he said was true. Arthur rewarded him with a small, tight smile.

"When did you get to be so wise?" he asked jokingly.

"Since I allowed Ginny and Hermione to talk some sense into me," he answered. It was true.

"Right," said Arthur briskly, shaking off his earlier melancholy, "what did you come in here to talk to me about?" Harry sighed.

"I think I need a disguise for the wedding. I'm a metamorph, like Tonks, but I don't want the others to know- well, Hermione and Ginny do, and so do the twins… oh, well you know what I'm talking about!" Harry said, growing increasingly flustered. Arthur smiled. It was incredibly funny seeing Harry get so flustered about his looks when he was so calm battling the most feared of Dark Lords! Of course, he knew what Harry meant, but it was fun to purposely misinterpret.

"I'll just go into town then," said Arthur finally, "and collect some hairs so that you can pretend to drink Polyjuice."

"Errr…" said Harry, realising that there was a huge confession here, "there isn't any left…"

"What do you mean?" asked Arthur, confused. No one had used the Polyjuice since… _that _night. He wasn't going to think about it.

"Hermione…" he trailed off and Arthur immediately understood.

"Smuggled the Polyjuice so that you, she and Ginny can disguise yourselves on your mission… though if you're a metamorph, I suppose it's just the two girls that need it." Harry gaped at the man.

"H-how did you…"

"How did I know?" Arthur smiled at the young man in front of him, "I was given quite a few clues… the way the three of you are always together, the knuts, secret looks, and the fact that I helped Ginny with the ghoul." Harry forced his jaw back up to its proper place.

"Oh," he said intelligently.

"Just look after her," said Arthur seriously, "I know I can't stop her going and to be honest I don't want to. You will look after her. I know you will." Harry smiled.

"I will try my hardest to keep her safe," Harry promised, "but Ginny isn't going to like it."

"I know," Arthur sighed, "and I suppose she's not an innocent child, either. She's had more experience with Voldemort than the rest of the boys put together," he sighed again, "okay, Harry; just come back, okay?" Harry sighed with relief, before smiling.  
"Okay, Arthur," he said simply.

"Right," Arthur was back on track, "just tell Molly that I had the Polyjuice and you got it from me." Harry nodded, glad to have gotten that out of the way.

"Well," Arthur sighed, "I'd best be getting inside, then. Got to help my eldest son get ready for his wedding." The old Arthur was back, confident and happy again. Harry grinned at the man, and clapped him on the back.

"Good luck." Arthur paled slightly, before walking out of the shed with his head held high, pausing only to nod his thanks to Harry.

Harry waited until the older man was out of earshot before collapsing to the ground in hysterical laughter. Trust a wedding to be the thing that had Arthur truly rattled with everything else that was going on at the moment. It was comforting, in a way, that something as normal as a wedding could still get people this nervous. It meant that the world was not yet completely destroyed by Voldemort.

~()~

Finally recovering himself, Harry walked out of the shed with as much dignity as he could, covered in metal and wood dust that had somehow managed to cover him completely… including in his hair! Harry wasn't quite sure how that had happened. He paused, wondering what to do. He couldn't go and talk to Ginny- she was going to be a bridesmaid, and therefore already getting ready. Hermione was with her. So… what was he going to do?

Harry somehow found himself trapped in the twins' room, listening to them complaining about dress robes, weddings, dress robes, Bill, dress robes, Fleur, dress robes, Molly and dress robes. It was remarkably tiring. He was extremely thankful when a shrill voice floated up the stairs, telling them to _get downstairs_ because the guests were about to start arriving. He quickly morphed himself into a red haired, severely freckled young man with an uncanny resemblance to Fred and George. They could have passed for triplets- though Harry supposed they would have been called fraternal.

"Right," said Harry, "I'm your cousin Bob."

"Bob?" the twins asked, eyebrows raised sardonically, "are you sure?"

"No," said Harry quickly, "give me a good name, please!"

"Hi, Cousin Barney!" Harry just groaned, images of purple dinosaurs dancing across his vision.

~()~

"Oh, boys, there you are," said Molly distractedly, "and is that… Harry?" Harry jumped at his name.

"Errr… its Barney. Arthur gave me some Polyjuice." He ducked his head, mimicking embarrassment. Molly smiled at that, before ushering them out of the house- but not before checking that their robes were in order.

"Just lead the guests to their seats," she said, still seeming distracted, before pushing them out of the house and pointing towards the gate. They made it about halfway to the gate before George stopped them.

"She forgot to give us the seating plans," he said, and the other two boys sighed. The twins started to turn around to go back to the house, but Harry just lifted an eyebrow and said;

"Accio seating plans!" Three scraps of parchment began to fly towards them, "where's Ron, anyway?" Identical grins split the faces of the Weasley Twins.

"Operation Payback has begun!" they said cheerfully before cackling evilly. Harry shivered.

"That reminds me," said Fred, and he began to tap his seating plan with his wand. George looked over his shoulder, and another evil grin came over it once he saw what his brother was doing.

"Errr… can I ask what you're doing?" Harry asked tentatively.

"You can," said George distractedly.

"Right… what are you doing?"

"Changing the seating plan," said Fred just as distractedly.

"Errr… okay," said Harry nervously, "I'll just leave you two to it, then."

"Oooh, don't worry little Harrikins… I mean Barneykins… we're just making sure that our great friend Ronald has good fun in his designated seat!" Fred sounded positively evil.  
"Yeah," agreed George, "you see, this says that he should be sitting with you, and Viktor is supposed to sit with our Aunt Muriel."

"Evil, that one is," Fred interjected.

"Right," agreed George, "so we're just swapping the two of them!"

"When you say Muriel is evil…" Harry trailed off when he saw the looks on the boys' faces.

"I'd rather face Voldemort," said Fred entirely seriously. Harry shivered, and almost felt sorry for Ron.

"Oh, look there's some of the people that are helping with the wedding!" said Harry quickly, trying desperately to change the topic.

"Yeah, that's the band and the waiters," said George, "they know what they're doing."

"You've stopped using twinspeech," Harry noticed.

"Yeah, we only do that when we want to annoy people," said Fred cheerfully.

"Or make them go away," added George. Harry just nodded. They used twinspeech a lot.

"There mustn't be very many people that you like, then," said Harry. Fred and George looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation before they turned to Harry, their faces completely serious.

"We hardly ever tell people, Harry," said Fred.

"We don't tell people because it is dangerous for this information to get into the wrong hands and people would want us to use it all the time. Well… trust us, it's better off if people don't find out," George continued seriously.

"Yeah," Fred agreed, "so you can't tell anyone. When we went through Magical Maturity, George and I developed the ability to read a person's emotions."

"That means we can tell if a person is trustworthy or not, and what they are thinking about, vaguely," George added. Harry nodded, and dropped the topic. Not because he wasn't interested, but because he could see a stream of people heading towards the gate and they were almost there.

"Looks like it's time to show people to their seats, boys," said Harry, not at all pleased about it. Fred and George groaned, showing just how happy they were about the situation.

The twins didn't stay unhappy for long- at the head of the procession was a group of pretty young French women and they were suddenly in their element, flirting outrageously, and- Harry noticed- using twinspeech quite a lot.

To Harry's surprise, he was actually recognised as Harry Potter- thankfully, no one else was in earshot when Luna called him by his real name.

"My name's Barney for now," he informed the eccentric girl, "and how did you know?"

"Oh, just your expression," she said vaguely before smiling and walking off. That was the largest shock he received leading people to their seats.

Finally, after palming a horrible Muriel off to the twins, almost everyone was seated and it was time for the ceremony to start. That was when a remarkably green Ron came out of the house supported by his mother and led to his seat beside his Great Aunt looking as though he wished he was still in bed covered in the green pustules that were courtesy of Fred and George.

Harry quickly made his way to his seat beside Viktor (and the aisle) and turned to face the back, half listening to the jittery conversation and nervous laughter that permeated the golden marque. Finally, Arthur and Molly made their way down the aisle, wearing new robes and beaming smiles waving at everyone in the audience.

As soon as they sat down, Bill and Charlie stood at the front of the marquee on the raised platform. They looked slightly nervous for a second before everyone's attention was captured by the music that suddenly swelled through the marquee. A loud sigh turned Harry around in his seat to see Fleur being led down the aisle by her father, followed by Ginny and Gabriele. The three girls looked stunning, but Fleur was absolutely radiant, beautifying everyone that she was near and drawing all of the attention. She smiled softly at Bill when she reached him, and he no longer looked as though he had ever met Fenrir Greyback. The sigh rippled through the audience again, before the crowd fell silent.

Harry allowed his attention to wander, and the ceremony went amazingly quickly. He turned his attention back in time to hear;

"…then I declare you bonded for life." Molly and Madam Delacour were sobbing softly in the front row as a golden light filled the marque. It formed into a thin rope and intertwined itself around Bill and Fleur's hands before it vanished as though it had never been there in the first place.

The moment was broken when the man on the stage leading the ceremony called for the audience to stand up and the chairs all disappeared for a second before they came back clumped around small tables around the yard. The ground solidified beneath them, creating a large dancefloor and the music swelled.

"Come on!" suddenly, Hermione was beside him, "we've got to go and congratulate them!"

"No we don't," Ginny was at his other side, "they're swamped as it is. We can go later. Let's dance!" Harry smiled ruefully and allowed the two girls to pull him onto the stage as they improvised, creating a new dance for the three of them. At first, the songs were slow, but they got faster and faster until Hermione squealed happily in his ear;

"This is a muggle song! It's really new; it's called 'Turn Me On!' The girls in my town were singing it before I came here!" Harry nodded distractedly, but he turned an ear to it in time to hear

'_My body needs a hero, come and save me, _

_Something tells me you know how to save me, _

_I've been feeling real low, _

_Oh, I need you to come and rescue me...'_

The lyrics having successfully destroyed Harry's mood, Hermione decided it was time for them to go and congratulate the newlyweds.

They got as far as;

"Congratulations, Bill and…" before a massive silver patronus solidified in the middle of the dancefloor.

Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice rang out as the lynx patronus moved its massive jaws.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. _They are coming._"

Harry quickly took the lead. He grabbed onto both Hermione and Ginny and apparated away, before any of the other guests had even moved. They went directly to Grimmauld Place, as they had planned. As soon as they collapsed inside, both girls turned to hug him; in shock from both the wedding and the various defences protecting the house that had left them all shaken. They stayed that way for almost an hour, calming down.

Finally, Hermione sat up. Her nostrils twitched slightly, put off by the musty smell that permeated the house.

"What's that smell?" she asked; disgust evident in her tone.

"What, the must?" asked Ginny, her voice still shaking slightly. Hermione shook her head.

"No, it's not must, it's like something's… rotting."

"It's probably Kreacher," said Harry, feeling slightly sick, "he betrayed his master to such a degree when he sent us to the Ministry… if he came back here after I sent him to Hogwarts he would have gone against one too many orders and his magic would have killed him."

"That's barbaric!" Hermione protested, and Harry looked at her wearily.

"Hermione, we've gone over this before. If the House Elves don't have a Master, they lose their magic. They were turned into House Elves because they committed some terrible crime as High Elves. They were stripped of their memories and forced to become House Elves. If they behave and spend their time well, their memories and full being will be returned. Kreacher was not a good elf." Hermione sniffed.

"Hermione!" cried Ginny exasperatedly, in too much shock to deal with this right now, "we're in the magical world! It's not as black and white as it is in the muggle world when it comes to most things, slavery included. There. End of topic. No more." Harry just sighed and got to his feet, going to make them a meal and get rid of the smell.

"We'll clean this place the way we did the attic," he said heavily, "but one room at a time. We'll start with the living room; we can sleep in there tonight." The girls nodded and set about doing their tasks, a heavy feeling hanging in the air that was only slightly lessened when Arthur's patronus came in, telling them that everyone was safe. It was a grim mood in that living room when they finally went to sleep.

The next day, Hermione went into her business-like mode, trying to lessen the memories of the previous day. It was then that Harry was reminded of the fact that he had to train his Elemental powers as well, and Hermione gave him a lecture on them…

~()~

"They're not very good for fighting with," she had told him, "because they take a long time to invoke. I think it's a few seconds for each piece of magic- you'll be struck down in a duel. But it could be used in long-distance fighting, or helping to set up an ambush, clean up after a fight, things like that. It could help to save lives, Harry, and you _need to train them!_ What have you been doing? I thought you were practicing with all of the powers you found out about during Magical Maturity! If I had known that you were going to be this lazy, I would have told you off weeks ago!" The rant had gone on and on, and Harry made a mental note to never, _ever _get on the receiving end of a Hermione-rant ever again. Of course, he had been making similar mental notes since first year.

~()~

Still, the rant had given him the kick that he needed and he found that he was quite good at manipulating the air, and almost as good with fire. He was alright with water too, but he had a lot of trouble with Earth- which was something that shocked him considering all of the time that he had spent dealing with the ground and gardening at the Dursleys. Now he just needed to practice…

[End of Chapter Five. Please Review!]

**AN: Once again, thanks to my sister for proofreading my… whatever you call the longwinded things that I tend to write. **


	6. Muggleborn Registration Commission

_**Chapter Six**_

The three teens soon fell into a rhythm of training their magic, studying and looking for information and clues. The Black library contained thousands upon thousands of interesting volumes, and Harry soon caught up to Hermione, knowledge-wise. It was easier than he thought it would be to get to that level- Hermione mostly only knew the things that they were taught at school.

Ginny, surprisingly, was doing extremely well. She found that without being in a class full of other people demanding the professor's attention, she could work very quickly and was now a long way ahead of the rest of her year- and Hogwarts hadn't even gone back after the break yet!

Both Harry and Ginny were enjoying the more practical side to the learning that they were doing, finding it easier to learn than when they were trying to memorise loads upon loads of the theory behind it.

"We probably have to learn the theory so well because Dumbledore's been trying to slow down the level of knowledge that we gain," Hermione had grumbled one afternoon when they had mentioned this. Harry and Ginny stared at her.

"What?" she asked, "While the two of you have been studying, I've been researching the academic records of Hogwarts. I figured that since Dumbledore was in on the plot, he must not have our best interests at heart and I was wondering if he was doing anything else. Since he became Headmaster, the academic scores of Hogwarts students compared to those of other schools have been dropping dramatically." She looked quite incensed.

"So… that's Dumbledore's fault?" asked Ginny, wondering how Hermione was going to reason this one, but knowing that it was true. Hermione nodded seriously, not realising that Ginny didn't doubt her… she was just picking her brains for ideas and theories.

"It is," she said solemnly, "Dumbledore has gotten rid of several classes since he became Headmaster, and the curriculum has changed. Spells and potions that we learn in seventh year used to be taught to students in their fifth year!" Harry was shocked. Hermione had said that it was a drop, but that was ridiculous!

"How did he get away with that? …and why can we still take NEWTs and get good scores?" He was feeling very confused.

"From the books I've read," Hermione began, "it seems as though he's gotten away with it because it's happened so gradually. The parents don't really notice much because their kids aren't _too_ far behind them- they just think it's a slow year of some such thing."

"Mum and Dad say that Dumbledore had to revise the curriculum because some of the spells they were learning in seventh year were too difficult for people our age."

"See?" crowed Hermione triumphantly, "that's a ridiculous reason! All seventh years have passed Magical Maturity, after all. If you can't learn the spell in seventh year, you're either not powerful enough- and that' never going to change- or you need to study more. The curriculum changed because Dumbledore didn't want powerful students knowing too much magic." Hermione was delighted that she had come up with that, but her excitement faded when Harry asked the question.

"Why?"

They were stumped.

Harry yawned as he sat down at the kitchen table, having already made his breakfast. He sighed softly as he sipped at his orange juice, his muscles protesting. He had overworked himself the night before in his exercises, egged on by the one fitness-nut portrait in the house and now his muscles were punishing him. Still, if it helped him in the long run…

He began to eat his toast mechanically, his mind on other things- like the locket. RAB's locket. They had discovered that it was Regulus', but Kreacher had stolen the locket back after they had thrown it out while the Order was cleaning up the place. Kreacher was dead, though, so they couldn't ask him where it was. They were stumped. He sighed again as he unrolled the Daily Prophet that had just been delivered via… well, he wasn't sure how the paper got to the house. He just knew that it was sitting on the mantelpiece every morning, surrounded by magic. It was probably a transportation device of some sort; he had to remember to look at it one day.

He looked at the front cover and promptly spat out his mouthful of juice.

"Hermione! Ginny! Come in here for a minute!" The two girls rushed into the room, looking worried.

"Harry, what is it?" Hermione asked gently when she saw that there was no immediate danger.

"Look at the cover!" he said anxiously.

"Umbridge… announces… Muggleborn… Registration… Commission…" Ginny read the paper slowly, upside down. Hermione looked horrified.

"No, not the article, the picture!" Harry was getting anxious.

"As ugly and pink as ever, Harry, but what's your point?" Hermione asked, bemused.

"The locket." The girls' eyes whipped back to the paper and stared. Right there, clear as day, was the locket that they were looking for. Slytherin's locket. The Horcrux.

"Wonder if it's possessed her," Harry wondered morbidly. Ginny pulled a face.

"Well, it couldn't make her personality any worse," she said flippantly, but it was clear that possession was still an issue for her.

"Ginny," Harry said softly, "I'm sorry." Ginny shook her head vigorously.

"Don't be," she said, "it's over." But for all her brave words, the sixteen year old couldn't stop the tear that trickled down her cheek. Harry bit his lip before pulling her into a tight hug.

"It's alright, you know," he said, "it wasn't your fault and it's a terrible thing to happen to an eleven year old." Hermione moved around the table to squeeze the younger girls' arm comfortingly.

"I know," Ginny said miserably, "but it hurts even more that everyone just dismissed it like that. You know- she's alive, she'll be fine. No one's ever tried to talk to me about it before, to see if I was alright." Hermione looked shocked.

"They didn't offer you any counselling?" Ginny just looked confused.

"What's that?"

"Errr…" Harry took over, "Counsellors are people that you can go to… their job is to talk to people after traumatic experiences and help them to get over it. They're used all the time in the muggle world… my cousin was sent to one by the school after he was told that he needed a diet- apparently, the shock of being told he was overweight was a traumatic experience-" all three of them snorted- "and in the muggle world, Dumbledore would have been charged with child neglect if he didn't refer you to a councillor or someone similar to help you get over that." Hermione silently applauded his description of them, but then added;

"Harry, you should have been referred as well- almost every year." He smiled.

"You'll just have to be our councillor, then, Hermione!" Then he blushed, as he realised he was still gripping onto Ginny who was perched on his lap.

Hermione smiled at the sight of the two of them, ruthlessly pushing down the jealousy she felt. Now was the time to be bringing the two of them back to Earth, not wishing she was the one getting a hug from Harry.

"Erm…" she said softly, "so now that we've found the Horcrux…" The other two sat up straight again, only small sounds of protest when Ginny went to go and sit in her own seat.

"We need to work out how we are going to get it back. Where's the easiest place to get it from? How are we going to do that?" Ginny sat back in her chair, a small smile on her face after she asked those questions. She enjoyed the fact that she was an active participant in these discussions a lot. After being the youngest in a family of seven for so long, she was used to being babied and shunted out of the way to 'protect' her. This was a nice change- to be involved.

The three of them sat thinking for a while, wondering how to best answer Ginny's question. Finally, Harry spoke up.

"We're going to have to get it from the Ministry," he said reluctantly, "We _definitely_ can't break into her home, and the Ministry is the only place that we can guarantee she will be and therefore set up a feasible plan." All three of them looked sick at the thought of breaking into the Ministry.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Ginny said, crossing her legs nervously. Harry immediately sat up straight, his eyes flashing. It was time to be the leader.

"We don't have a choice," he said, eyes sparkling passionately, "we _have _to get the locket! If we fail, Voldemort might never be defeated. I refuse to live in a world where Voldemort is immortal! So, we have to get the locket. The Ministry is the easiest place to get it from. WE don't have any choice. We _must _do this." It was possibly the most morbid speech Harry had ever given, but it did what he meant it to. The girls sat up, eyes flashing dangerously.

"We'll get it," said Ginny, her voice laced with power.

"Now we just need a plan," said Hermione cheerfully, bent over in her typical study-mode. Harry snorted. Ginny noticed, and let out a little giggle. Before long, the three of them were on the ground in hysterics- extremely lucky for all the wards around the property. If they hadn't been there, the muggles surely would have come knowing, wanting to know what was so hysterically funny at this time in the morning.

It took them almost half an hour to calm down, and when they sat up their sides ached from all the laughter.

"I suppose we do need a plan," said Harry, chest heaving, "We'll have to take turns on a stake out at the Ministry, watching for information. We'll have to get some Polyjuice, and some people that we can impersonate… we'll have to get tabs on those people- a lot of them."

"How are we going to stop the people we're impersonating from following us to the Ministry? That would be a disaster!" Ginny looked more than a little worried at the thought.

"We'll have to subdue them somehow," said Hermione heavily, "not permanently, just for long enough that we can get in and out of there." Ginny pulled a face.

"I suppose I'd best start teaching you two how to behave like Purebloods," she said, "it'll help you disguise as other people- no one will dare behave anything but the perfect Pureblood at the Ministry these days," she said and Harry and Hermione nodded their approval at her- though Hermione looked a little worried at the idea. She still hadn't fully embraced the Magical world, feeling as though the Muggle world made a lot more sense. Harry had no such inhibitions- the Dursleys had been horrible enough to him that he felt as though he truly belonged in this world even though it wasn't pleasant all the time.

That was how their 'Behave like a Pureblood' lessons began.

Their schedule was slowly becoming more and more hectic- Harry found himself fitting those lessons in around studying and physical exercises as well as conversations over what to do about the Horcruxes and what to do with them once they had found them- how to destroy them. Harry had some ideas about that, but he wasn't ready to share them…

~()~

Ginny was enjoying giving lessons on how to behave like a Pureblood- especially to Harry. Hermione tended to question every tradition, every action, and was sceptical about the entire thing. Harry just embraced the lessons and Ginny was enjoying teaching him how to walk, speak, behave, how to dance, how to treat a lady, how to eat, everything.

The dancing was particularly fun, and Ginny found that she was quickly able to let the tall (and very handsome, in her opinion) boy lead her around the dancefloor in all of the traditional dances.

What she wasn't going to tell him was that she was being more clever than he would have ever thought. There were different behaviours, depending on what rank you had as a Pureblood. She had discreetly researched the Potter family and all of the inheritances that Harry likely had in terms of family lines and was teaching him to behave and carry himself like the Lord he most likely would become, rather than the behaviours and mannerisms expected of a poor family such as the Weasleys.

Unfortunately, it was an insult worthy of a blood feud to act above your own rank, so she was forced to teach Hermione how to behave like a Weasley. No one of their rank would think to take offence at a Muggleborn assuming their own behaviours.

~()~

Contrary to what the other two thought, Hermione didn't despise all aspects of what Ginny called 'Pureblood Training.' Since there was only one boy in the house, Hermione found herself learning to dance with Harry- and she definitely enjoyed that! …She just wasn't going to tell either of them, because she wasn't sure she could stand the smug looks they were sure to give her. Seriously, though! Who would have ever assumed that political dancing would be _fun?_ It just didn't fit with her image of the world, and Hermione found herself having to readjust some of her opinions on that. Not that she minded, of course. She got to dance with Harry.

[End of chapter Six. Please Review!]

**AN: I apologise, this chapter is very short. I just couldn't think of anything to write! Once I realised that my rambling was getting far too long-winded, I had to end the chapter. Anyway, the usual thanks are now going to be inserted in here- thanks to my sister for editing, and you all for reading my work!**

**Special thanks to those who have reviewed. **

**To those looking forward to Ginny and Harry getting together, I'm afraid this may disappoint- I'm terrible at writing romance, and tend to avoid it- so you won't get to read much about it. Sorry, and thanks again for reading!**


	7. Septimus Weasley

_**Chapter Seven**_

Harry, Ginny and Hermione soon began to straighten out the last of the wrinkles in the Ministry Watch plan, and both girls soon began to take it in turns to hide under the invisibility cloak at the entrance of the Ministry watching and learning (and collecting a few interesting things if they happened to be left behind). Harry had suggested, at one stage that they call Dobby and ask him to watch for them, but the suggestion had been shot down by both girls. Hermione objected on the basis that he would be asking a house elf to do his work for them. Ginny had the more practical reason. She had said that the Ministry had wards around it, blocking all creatures that didn't have human blood and alerting the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures if they were only part-human. She also said that a house-elf that was free, as Dobby was, would struggle to keep themselves from helping others if they were in trouble- especially if they had visited the Malfoy property frequently, as it was in the make-up of a House elf to serve those that they saw frequently as well as the family that they were bound to. They couldn't use Kreacher, either, as he was dead. They had confirmed the first night that the rotting smell was indeed Kreacher, who had disobeyed orders one too many times. So, the girls watched instead.

Meanwhile, Harry began searching through the magical and muggle world for a new hiding spot for them should Grimmauld Place be discovered and they needed a safe spot to live and hide in. It was tough going, especially in the muggle world as not many people wanted to sell to a seventeen year old boy- Harry was just glad that he was a metamorph- it meant that he could make himself look a few years older with only a small amount of trouble. Ageing potions seemed to help as well. But, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't seem to find the right place for them to stay. All of the properties were either too close to muggles, in a dangerous place, too obvious, too small or had some other problem that prevented them from using it. Harry was getting frustrated- they needed to find a place, and _fast_- but there was nothing on the market at the moment. He had come close with a place in Scotland, but had discovered afterwards that it was directly beneath a muggle flight path and that would make it impossible to ward as the muggles would probably notice if a huge property just disappeared off the face of the earth. Too many non-magicals had seen it for obliviation to be feasible, too.

Harry apparated to a property in Russia that a real estate agent had recommended to him. It was large, and mostly out of the way, down hidden in one of the many valleys that made up the Ural Mountains. It was looking promising. It was large enough for them to stay at, and wasn't anywhere near a major muggle city. The price was reasonable- from what he could tell, his Russian was terrible. Harry was smiling, pleased that he had _finally _found the right place- when he spotted the problem. A magical signature. The seller was magical.

_That _was going to be a problem. If the seller was Light, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but the signature didn't feel that way. Now there was the question of why a potentially Dark Wizard was trying to sell his home the muggle way… Harry supposed it was the exchange rate. That didn't make any sense, though, unless he was planning on making a lot of muggle purchases. It was possible, he supposed, but not very likely. He would have to take this problem to Hermione.

"Thank you for your time," he said politely, "but I don't think this is what I'm looking for." He bowed slightly, and turned to walk away. The man snarled, and a light breeze blew around him as he lost control of his magic.

His left sleeve blew upwards a little, and Harry saw it. The Dark Mark. Harry froze for a second; before he remembered that he was morphed into a different figure- he wouldn't be recognised.

"Not so fast," came the ominous voice. "CRUCIO!" Harry barely managed to jump out of the way of the unforgivable, and landed on his feet thanks only to his dancing lessons. Maybe Ginny was cleverer than he thought. No- there wasn't time for those sorts of thoughts- and he pulled his wand out. The Death Eater's eyes widened at the sight of it.

"Stupefy," Harry ground out, and a bright beam of red light shot towards the man. The Death Eater put up a shield that shook and bucked on impact- but the curse had been diluted enough that the man remained standing.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry cried, and the Death Eater's wand flew towards him. He caught it, and stalked forwards, his wand pointed straight at the Death Eater's neck.

"I-I'm sorry," the man snivelled, "I-I th-thought y-y-you were a-a-a M-m-m-mugg-muggle!" Harry snarled at the man, who cringed.

"When did you become a Death Eater?" Harry wasn't in the mood for games.

"L-l-la-last w-w-week," he stuttered, looking terrified.

"Why?" Harry barked out.

"M-my p-par-parents-s c-c-called m-me a-a-a squ-squib," the man bowed his head in shame. Harry nodded. He wasn't exactly very powerful, the Cruciatus cruse had left the man shaking from exhaustion. He lowered his wand, and let the man sit up, but he kept an eye on him. The man was still a Death Eater, after all.

"How old are you?" that was the question that Harry was really interested in.

"S-seventeen," said the man, his stutter reducing a little as he was no longer under Harry's wand. Harry sighed. His age.

"And why were you trying to sell this house?"

"T-the Dark Lord o-ordered me to k-kill a Muggle," he admitted, "a-and I didn't want t-t-to just g-g-go and k-kill a man so I thought that i-if they c-c-came here, then th-that would b-be easier b-b-because th-then they would h-have f-found out ab-about m-m-magic and need their memories m-m-modified anyway." Harry thought that was disgusting, but at least he wasn't as cruel as some of the others.

"I thought that Death Eaters enjoyed torturing and killing muggles," Harry mused aloud, but the man began to vigorously shake his head, attempting to communicate with him.

"M-m-my b-best f-friends are muggleborn," the man admitted, "a-and I have Muggle friends as well." Now Harry was intrigued. He squatted down in front of the man, eyes level and stared his straight in the face.

"So if you don't want to kill them, why did you become a death Eater?"

"To get revenge on my parents," the man admitted, and Harry nodded. It was a terrible reason, but apparently some Death Eaters were redeemable. If he helped this man…

"Why did you use the Cruciatus?" The answer appalled even Harry. Voldemort had put some kind of curse on the man. If he didn't use the Cruciatus on a person within twenty four hours, he would die… painfully. Apparently, missing the person didn't count. Harry made up his mind. He was going to help this man… boy.

"Curse me," he said finally. The Death Eater stared as his wand was handed back.

"Really?" the man asked him, shock and awe written clearly over his face. Harry nodded. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as though he could trust this man.

"Crucio," the man said softly, and the curse slammed into Harry. He grunted and fell on his side, but otherwise remained silent. The man lifted the curse almost immediately. Harry smiled softly to himself. The man was sincere. For the Cruciatus to work, you had to want to see the sufferer in pain. For it to not work like that for a Death Eater was incredible. He sat up quickly, and held out a hand for the man to shake.

"I don't know how to remove the Dark Mark," Harry admitted, "but I will help you get out of there." The man didn't look like he could believe that.

"R-Really?" Harry stared the man in the eyes, letting him look, to see the sincerity in his own eyes when he said;

"Yes, I will." The Death Eater smiled, and a tear trickled down his cheek- he pretended to not notice. Harry really had no idea why he was trusting the man, but he left it. He trusted his intuition- it hadn't yet led him wrong. He moved over to beside the man, and rolled his sleeve up to look at the Dark Mark. He had never had the chance to feel the magic of it before, and he actually was quite intrigued by it.

Most of the magic in it was too complicated for Harry to understand, but he was able to spot the Protean Charm as well as the mind link. Harry's blood ran cold. There was no spies in Voldemort's ranks that the snake-man himself wasn't aware of as the mind-link allowed him to automatically bypass and all Occlumency shields that were put in place- especially the conventional shields. That meant that there was no way of getting the right information through spies, and you couldn't confide anything to marked Death Eaters without Voldemort being able to access the information. Of course, it was entirely possible that he would overlook one fresh Death Eater that wouldn't have been able to get too much information since the time he was marked.

He was going to have to take a risk with this one. He just wouldn't tell the man anything that was really important to keep secret from Voldemort.

The Death Eater was shocked when he realised what the Dark Mark was doing, and even more eager to get it off him. He agreed to be 'abducted' by Harry (though he didn't know that name) and kept in a 'holding cell' until they figured out how to release him. It wasn't safe to go back to Voldemort anymore.

"Just one last thing," Harry asked, "what is your name?" The man froze.

"S-Septimus W-W-Weasley." Harry stared.

"Explain. You are the same age as Ronald Weasley." The man- Septimus- nodded.

"H-He i-i-is m-my twin b-b-brother, but we are in n-no way alike. I l-l-like reading, a-and studying a-a-and l-learning things- n-n-no m-matter what m-most p-p-people say about the t-topics. Th-That was the f-first thing that t-t-turned my p-parents away f-f-from m-me- I didn't b-believe them when they t-t-told me that D-Dark was evil. I-I d-d-didn't behave l-like a W-Weasley. I d-d-didn't w-want to play Q-Quidditch, o-or play p-p-pranks o-or anything e-else l-like that. I o-only t-t-talked to P-Percival, b-b-but h-he didn't like m-me. H-He b-b-believed m-my parents a-a-about L-Light and D-Dark. N-No one in the f-f-family l-liked m-me except f-for G-Ginny. W-when I didn't g-g-get a-a Hogwarts l-l-letter, th-they d-d-disowned m-me. Th-They d-d-didn't w-wait f-for me to g-g-get accepted into R-Ravenclaw's M-Magical S-Sanctuary o-o-of L-Learning, th-they j-j-just c-c-cast m-me out a-after f-forcing me t-to watch th-them o-o-obliviate G-Ginny!" That was too much for Septimus, and he broke down into tears. Harry was suddenly feeling as though his reasons for joining Voldemort weren't so terrible. To be treated like that, just for liking to learn everything and for not getting a Hogwarts letter… everyone with a basic magical education knew that the schools coordinated themselves so that prospective students didn't get flooded with thousands of acceptance letters at once. He was about to ask Septimus about Ravenclaw's Sanctuary of Learning, but then glanced at his 'new' watch and decided that he didn't have time.

"Come," he said, "I'll abduct you now. Grab my hand and I'll apparate you to your cell." Septimus grasped his wrist hard, and Harry turned and apparated away. The 'cell' he had decided on was the whole basement. It had basically everything- a bedroom, study, bathroom and a kitchenette as well as more than a few interesting books. It was locked from the outside, so that there was no way he could 'escape,' and his wand had suppressions on it so that he couldn't cast Unforgivables… or locking and unlocking charms.

"If you want to send me a message, write it on a scrap of parchment," Harry instructed, "and put it in this box. When you shut the lid, it will be transported up to my own box and I'll contact you the same way, got it?" Septimus stared.

"Transportation Boxes, based on the very first portkey. They're rare," he said, impressed. Harry nodded.

"You can address messages to me by writing 'White Lord,' but I am also working with two women named Hermione and… Ginny Weasley." Septimus fainted, and Harry smiled before reviving him.

"I'll explain to her tonight, and you can contact her tomorrow, if you like." Septimus nodded eagerly, and Harry smiled before turning and walking up the rickety stairs. He paused before the door that led to the rest of the house.

"I'll contact you the day before I come down here to talk to you as well, just in case you are doing something. I really do want to study your mark, but I need to learn a bit more before I can do that properly." Septimus nodded and waved at him before going into the 'bedroom'- Harry didn't blame him, the man was probably emotionally exhausted after everything that had happened today.

Harry sighed heavily as he locked the basement door with the strongest locking charms he knew. Septimus had no chance of unlocking them, but he knew that the man wasn't even going to try. Now, he just had the difficult task of talking to Ginny. _That _was going to be a difficult conversation. Thankfully, she wasn't on Ministry Guard. Both girls tended to come back a little frustrated and short-tempered after those watches and Harry didn't feel like dropping such heavy news on the girl when she was already in a bad mood. It might just send her over the edge, rampaging after her parents and attempting to murder them. Or at least her mother. Harry had a strange feeling that Arthur Weasley had nothing to do with this, or he was forced into it by something his wife had done. There was also the possibility that Dumbledore was in on this- after all, he was the Headmaster of Hogwarts and would have been able to explain something like that to Molly and Arthur.

"Harry?" a voice broke through his thoughts, "Harry? What's wrong? You look upset. Wasn't the house right again?" Harry shook his head and led the girl into the kitchen for motioning her to sit down, and taking his own seat opposite her. This was going to be a long conversation.

He was right. It was a long conversation, and Ginny was furious. Harry managed to calm her down a little- she was no longer jumping out of her seat to attack her mother. She agreed with Harry on his thoughts about both Arthur and Dumbledore, and was now demanding that the two of them try to find a way to get rid of obliviations. Harry decided that even without the knowledge that they now had, it was a good idea. They had been at Hogwarts for a long time, after all, and there were too many opportunities for them to see something that the Professors– especially Dumbledore- didn't want them to. Maybe _that _was why there was so little concrete evidence against the Professors at the school. It was always a possibility.

That was when the two of them heard the door slam, and they rushed to the entrance, greeting Hermione immediately. Harry was thankful that they had blasted Mrs Black off the wall on their first day, otherwise they would have already been driven half-mad by her ranting every time they left or came back from doing something- which was several times each day. Harry shuddered at the thought, and followed the two girls back into the kitchen.

"Nothing," said Hermione furiously, smashing her fist into the notepad that she had just dumped on the table, "absolutely _nothing!_ Six hours, and not once did anyone drop any information, or anything else of value!" Ginny looked vaguely impressed with the Ministry workers.

"Not even those little entry tokens?" Hermione shook her head and Ginny was even more impressed despite not wanting to be. Ministry Workers were, generally, quite careless with their belongings, and both girls had quite a collection of valuable things that they had collected off the ground, including a map of how the Department of Mysteries worked. That was quite a find. Harry and Ginny let Hermione fume for a little long, Harry moving himself a little closer so that the older girl could draw some comfort from his body. Finally, she calmed down enough to think rationally.

"How did your hunt go, Harry? Found the right place yet?" Harry shook his head ruefully.

"I managed to look at three different properties today," he said, "and none of them were quite right. They were all in Russia. I made an interesting discovery in the third place, though…" he said, and Hermione got to hear the story of Septimus Weasley. She was adequately appalled… and intrigued by the research project that he presented for them. She was literally bouncing in her seat to take a closer look at the Dark Mark, even after Harry had described everything he had found down to the minute details. Both he and Ginny shook their heads at her enthusiasm, though Ginny looked a little sad. To not remember your own brother, and then to find him only to discover that your own parents had driven him to the Death Eaters must be devastating. He leaned over and hugged the younger girl, projecting love and comfort into it. He finally saw her smile, and smiled back before loosening his grip and letting go with one hand to draw Hermione into the hug on the other side. Hermione beamed her brilliant smile at him when he did so, and they remained that way for several minutes before Ginny brought them back to task with a remarkably depressing;

"So, where are the rest of the Horcruxes?"

They debated the point for hours, none of them able to agree on one particular location. Ginny believed that one would be at the orphanage, but Harry shot that down. He hated that place, and Harry was sure that the creature wasn't going to hide a piece of his soul in the place that he despised.

Harry himself believed that there would be one at Hogwarts, but Hermione debated that, saying that if there was one there, Dumbledore would have found it. Harry grudgingly conceded that point, though he knew that Dumbledore had yet to discover all of the secrets of Hogwarts- the room of Requirement was proof enough of that! Hermione still believed that Dumbledore had done his best in regards to the Horcruxes- he was a bad man, but he didn't want Voldemort to win.

Hermione had offered the idea that a Horcrux could be hidden at Borgin and Burkes, but both Ginny and Harry had shot that one down. It just wasn't safe to hide a piece of your soul in a shop that sold creepy items with a proprietor that was a greedy as Borgin and Burke were. Besides, a shop that specialised in Dark items was sure to recognise a Horcrux for what it truly was, and then… there was no telling what those men would do, but having a piece of your soul was an excellent bargaining chip. Tom Riddle would not leave his soul there.

They were at loss for other places the Horcruxes could be, although both Ginny and Harry agreed that Gringotts was a potential storage spot, considering how grand the bank was and the symbolism behind owning a vault there- you would truly belong in the magical world. Hermione was sceptical, but she agreed that Harry could talk to the goblins next time he went there- which was most likely when he wanted the Locket destroyed after they managed to get it back. Goblins were remarkably good at destroying things, and a goblin-made treasure turned into such a despicable object might even sway the creatures from their neutrality.

The topic exhausted, the three of them began to move to bed, but not before Harry could question Ginny on her ulterior motives to the dancing lessons. She smirked, and told him that there were none but if he could find such benefit in them then that was good for him and he should have more lessons. Harry just raised an eyebrow at the girl, not believing her for a second. The fitness-nut in the portrait beside him at the time, seemed to agree with him and suggested that he begin learning gymnastics as well. Harry just shivered. The man was nice, teaching him different physical exercises, but he was also more than a little _obsessive_ when it came to physical activity. Dancing included.

The worst part was that they were related- he was the father of Dorea Black, who had married into the Potter family as his grandmother.

That was a fact that made his great-grandfather all the more willing to torture him.

[End of Chapter Seven. Please Review!]


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